Opinion ID: 2010922
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Weight to Accord Trial Court's Decision.

Text: The first thing to determine is the weight to be given the trial court's decision in this matter. When the facts have been stipulated, the remaining issue or issues constitute questions of law. In considering such questions, this court does not give any special weight to the conclusions of the trial court. Most of the facts were stipulated, there being few, if any, in dispute, and those not in sharp conflict. Here we have the trial court applying the law to the facts or the facts to the law, as it sees it. In such cases this court is not bound by the findings of the trial court, and the rule that the findings must be sustained unless against the great weight and clear preponderance of the evidence is not applicable. Dairy Queen of Wisconsin, Inc. v. McDowell (1952), 260 Wis. 471, 474, 51 N. W. 2d 34, 52 N. W. 2d 791. See also: In re Adams Machinery, Inc. (1963), 20 Wis. 2d 607, 123 N. W. 2d 558, and Engineers & Scientists v. Milwaukee (1968), 38 Wis. 2d 550, 554, 157 N. W. 2d 572. Thus this court should decide the question presented here according to its own previously established rules of statutory construction.