Case Title: Rudy Nedvidek v. Judith L. Kuipers

Citation: 2009 WI 44

Docket Number: 2006AP003075

State: wisconsin

Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Date: 2009-06-10T00:00:00Z

Document:
2009 WI 44 
 
SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN 
 
 
 
 
 
CASE NO.: 
2006AP3075 
COMPLETE TITLE: 
 
 
Rudy Nedvidek, Commander of VFW Post 1530 and 
Tom Hundt, individually, and as President of 
Vietnam Era Veterans, 
          Plaintiffs-Appellants-Petitioners, 
     v. 
Judith L. Kuipers, Ex-Chancellor of U.W.L., 
Douglas N. Hastad, Ex-Chancellor of U.W.L., 
Katherine Lyall, Ex-President of U.W. System and 
Ex officio member of the Board of Regents and 
University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 
          Defendants-Respondents. 
 
 
 
 
REVIEW OF A DECISION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS 
Reported at: 309 Wis. 2d 234, 747 N.W.2d 527 
(Ct. App. 2008-Unpublished) 
 
 
OPINION FILED: 
June 10, 2009   
SUBMITTED ON BRIEFS: 
        
ORAL ARGUMENT: 
February 5, 2009   
 
 
SOURCE OF APPEAL: 
 
 
COURT: 
Circuit   
 
COUNTY: 
Dane   
 
JUDGE: 
John C. Albert   
 
 
 
JUSTICES: 
 
 
CONCURRED: 
        
 
DISSENTED: 
        
 
NOT PARTICIPATING: BRADLEY, J., did not participate.   
 
 
 
ATTORNEYS: 
 
For the plaintiffs-appellants-petitioners there were briefs 
by James P. Grenisen, La Crosse, and oral argument by James P. 
Grenisen. 
 
For the defendants-respondents there was a brief and oral 
argument by F. Thomas Creeron III, assistant attorney general, 
with whom on the brief was J.B. Van Hollen, attorney general. 
 
 
 
 
2009 WI 44
NOTICE 
This opinion is subject to further 
editing and modification.  The final 
version will appear in the bound 
volume of the official reports.   
No.  2006AP3075  
(L.C. No. 
2006CV959) 
STATE OF WISCONSIN  
 
 
   : 
IN SUPREME COURT 
 
 
Rudy Nedvidek, Commander of VFW Post 1530; and 
Tom Hundt, individually, and as President of 
Vietnam Era Veterans, 
 
          Plaintiffs-Appellants-Petitioners, 
 
     v. 
 
Judith L. Kuipers, Ex-Chancellor of U.W.L.; 
Douglas N. Hastad, Ex-Chancellor of U.W.L.; 
Katherine Lyall, Ex-President of U.W. System 
and Ex officio member of the Board of Regents; 
and University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 
 
          Defendants-Respondents. 
 
FILED 
 
JUN 10, 2009 
 
David R. Schanker 
Clerk of Supreme Court 
 
 
 
 
 
REVIEW of a decision of the Court of Appeals.  Dismissed as 
improvidently granted.   
 
¶1 
PER CURIAM.   Plaintiffs petitioned for review of an 
unpublished decision1 of the court of appeals, which affirmed the 
circuit court's decision2 dismissing the plaintiffs' claims on 
                                                 
1 Nedvidek v. Kuipers, No. 2006AP3075, unpublished slip op. 
(Wis. Ct. App. Feb. 28, 2008). 
2 The Honorable John C. Albert of Dane County presided. 
No. 
2006AP3075 
 
2 
 
mootness and standing grounds.  After examining the record and 
the briefs of the parties, and after hearing oral argument, we 
conclude that the petition for review was improvidently granted.   
¶2 
In October of 1945, the City of La Crosse passed a 
resolution to construct a recreational facility including a 
football stadium, which it named Veterans Memorial Stadium.  On 
February 2, 1988, the city quitclaimed the facility to the 
University of Wisconsin Board of Regents (Board of Regents), and 
it became part of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL) 
facilities.  A use agreement from the city, executed as part of 
the quitclaim deed, allegedly required the University of 
Wisconsin to continue to honor veterans through its naming of 
the stadium.3   
¶3 
On May 31, 2000, Roger Harring resigned after a long 
and successful tenure as UWL football coach.  On June 5, 2000, 
UWL chancellor Judith Kuipers renamed the football stadium Roger 
Harring Veterans Memorial Stadium.  On August 8, 2001, Kuipers' 
successor, Douglas Hastad, named the field adjacent to the 
stadium the Roger Harring Field, and renamed the stadium 
Veterans Memorial Stadium.  On December 9, 2005, the Board of 
Regents adopted a resolution naming the stadium Roger Harring 
Stadium and naming the field and surrounding practice areas 
Memorial field. 
                                                 
3 In their petition for review and briefs to this court, 
plaintiffs asserted third-party beneficiary status based on the 
quitclaim deed and use agreement.  However, these documents are 
not in the record before us. 
No. 
2006AP3075 
 
3 
 
¶4 
Plaintiffs, as members of La Crosse area veterans' 
groups, sued the Board of Regents, the ex-president of the UW 
System, and two former chancellors of UWL, alleging open records 
and public meetings law violations, malfeasance in office and 
failure to follow internal university operating procedures in 
renaming the stadium.  The purpose of the plaintiffs' lawsuit 
was to void the chancellors' change in the name of the stadium 
and to rename it the Veterans Memorial Stadium.  The circuit 
court and court of appeals dismissed these claims on mootness 
and standing grounds.  We now dismiss the petition for review as 
improvidently granted, because the issues for which we took the 
case do not present any novel questions or lead to the 
development of the law. 
¶5 
We note that that the defendants filed a motion to 
strike 
various 
portions 
of 
appendices 
submitted 
by 
the 
plaintiffs, and a non-party filed a motion for leave to submit 
an amicus brief.  Because we have determined that the petition 
for review should be dismissed as improvidently granted, we need 
not address these motions. 
¶6 
By the Court.—The review of the decision of the court 
of appeals is dismissed as improvidently granted. 
¶7 
ANN WALSH BRADLEY, J., did not participate. 
 
No. 
2006AP3075 
 
 
 
1