Court Opinion

ID: 9659057
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:30:54.083715+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:03.659071
License: Public Domain

*485Wilkie, J.
(dissenting). I would reach the merits of this controversy. I would not hold the failure of the WERB to decide the matter before eleven months to be fatal. In so doing I submit that the majority is really applying a double standard to these proceedings as compared with quite comparable proceedings in the trial courts.
Under sec. 270.88, Stats.,1 a trial judge is required to make his decision within sixty days after submission of the cause. This section has been ruled directory rather than mandatory,2 and a five-month delay has been tolerated in the case of Merkley v. Schram.3
Sec. 111.07 (4), Stats., states that the WERB must also make its findings within sixty days after hearing testimony and argument. It is my opinion that sec. 111.07 (12) is directory rather than mandatory.
“(12) A substantial compliance with the procedure of this subchapter shall be sufficient to give effect to the orders of the board, and they shall not be declared inoperative, illegal, or void for any omission of a technical nature in respect thereto.”
To hold otherwise would place a higher standard on administrative agencies than is placed on trial courts.
By not reaching the merits in this case, we may deprive the employees of their remedy through no fault of their own.
I have been authorized to state that Mr. Justice Heffernan joins in this dissent.
*485aThe following memorandum was filed January 11, 1967.

 “270.33 Trial by court; findings, judgment. Except in actions and proceedings under ch. 299, upon a trial of an issue of fact by the court, its decision shall be given in writing and filed with the clerk within 60 days after submission of the cause, and shall state separately the facts found and the conclusions of law thereon; and judgment shall be entered accordingly.”

 Galewski v. Noe (1954), 266 Wis. 7, 16, 62 N. W. (2d) 703; Kamuchey v. Trzesniewski (1959), 8 Wis. (2d) 94, 101, 98 N. W. (2d) 403.

 (1966), 31 Wis. (2d) 134, 142 N. W. (2d) 173.