Court Opinion

ID: 9664473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:19:35.929264+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:06.554773
License: Public Domain

GARTZKE, P.J.
(dissenting). Section 805.04(1), Stats., permits dismissal of an action without a court order "by serving and filing a notice of dismissal at any time before service by an adverse party of responsive pleading or motion . . .."An adverse party cannot file a pleading in an appeal under sec. 32.06(10), Stats. The adverse party, the condemnor, did not file a motion. The attempted dismissal is therefore void.
As the trial court said, sec. 32.06(10), Stats., is "unique and somewhat curious." It permits the con-demnor or condemnee to "appeal" by giving notice of appeal to the opposite party and to the clerk of the circuit court. The clerk must enter the appeal "as an action pending in said court with the condemnee as plaintiff and the condemnor as defendant." After the appeal is entered as an action, "it shall thereupon proceed as an action in said court subject to all of the provisions of law relating to actions brought therein . .
However, nothing in sec. 32.06(10), Stats., contemplates an answer, the traditional pleading by an adverse party in an action. Although sec. 802.01(1), Stats., provides ”[t]here shall be a complaint and an answer;. . .," that requirement does not apply to an appeal under sec. 32.06(10).
Good reason exists for the absence of an answer in a sec. 32.06(10), Stats., appeal. The function of an answer is to join and therefore identify the issues to be tried. *30The issues in a sec. 32.06(10) appeal are identified by the statute itself, which provides that "the only issues to be tried shall be questions of title, if any, as provided by ss. 32.11 and 32.12 and the amount of just compensation to be tried by condemnor, ..." (emphasis added). An answer identifying those issues would be superfluous. An answer adding other issues would exceed the statutory scope of the appeal.
Because no "pleadings" are contemplated or indeed permitted under sec. 32.06(10), Stats., and no motion was filed by the condemnor, sec. 805.04(1), Stats., does not apply. The trial court properly voided the con-demnee's attempted notice of dismissal.