Court Opinion

ID: 9690319
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 19:04:41.858888+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:55.416873
License: Public Domain

ANN WALSH BRADLEY, J.
(dissenting).
¶ 83. Although the majority makes a compelling argument by tracing precedent and enunciating good policy, it is easy to lose focus of the central question presented in this case: whether the legislature intended that a foreign statute of repose be treated as a "limitation" for purposes of Wis. Stat. § 893.07.
*273¶ 84. In this case, we have the benefit of a Judicial Council Note which clearly sets forth the intent of the legislature in enacting this statute. It is rare that legislative history so precisely answers the presented question. Because the relevant Judicial Council Note clearly states the intent, "in Wisconsin limitations are not treated as statutes of repose," I cannot join the majority's contrary interpretation. If the statute is to be revised, that is a task better left for the legislature, not the courts. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
¶ 85. Although the majority attempts at length to explain away this note, there is no escaping its clear mandate: Wisconsin's borrowing statute, § 893.07, was not intended by the legislature to apply to statutes of repose. Even the majority acknowledges the clarity of the Judicial Council Notes which support Wenke's construction. It candidly admits: "[t]he language of these Committee Notes does appear, on its face, to speak exactly to Wenke's construction of both Wis. Stat. §§ 893.05 and 893.07." Majority op., ¶ 49.
¶ 86. In 1979, the legislature restructured Chapter 893, Limitations of. Commencement of Actions . .. Against Governmental Units. Within that comprehensive revision, the Judicial Council redrafted Wisconsin's borrowing statute, Wis. Stat. § 893.205, renumbering it to § 893.07.
¶ 87. Former § 893.205(1) provided in relevant part:
But no action to recover damages for injuries to the person, received without this state, shall be brought in any court in this state when such action is barred by any statute of limitations of actions of the state or country in which such injury was received unless the person so injured shall, at the time of such injury, have been a resident of this state.
*274(Emphasis added).
¶ 88. Section 893.07(1), the statute at issue, was recreated to provide:
893.07 Application of foreign statutes of limitation.1 (1) If an action is brought in this state on a foreign cause of action and the foreign period of limitation which applies has expired, no action may be maintained in this state.
¶ 89. The Judicial Council Committee Note to § 893.07 explains the intent of the recreated statute:
Sub. (1) applies the provision of s. 893.05 that the running of a statute of limitations extinguishes the right as well as the remedy to a foreign cause of action on which an action is attempted to be brought in Wisconsin in a situation where the foreign period has expired. Sub. (1) changes the law of prior s. 893.205(1), which provided that a resident of Wisconsin could sue in this state on a foreign cause of action to recover damages for injury to the person even if the foreign period of limitation had expired.
Judicial Council Committee Note, 1979, § 893.07 (emphasis added).
¶ 90. As noted, § 893.07 incorporates the provisions of § 893.05. It is entitled "Relation of statute of limitations to right and remedy," and provides "[w]hen the period within which an action may be commenced on a Wisconsin cause of action has expired, the right is extinguished as well as the remedy." The Judicial Council Committee Note to § 893.05 reflects the intent:
*275This new section is a codification of Wisconsin case law. See Maryland Casualty Company v. Beleznay, 245 Wis. 390, 14 N.W.2d 177 (1944), in which it is stated at page 393: "In Wisconsin the running of the statute of limitations absolutely extinguishes the cause of action for in Wisconsin limitations are not treated as statutes of repose."
Judicial Council Committee Note, 1979, § 893.05 (emphasis added).
¶ 91. The Committee's note for Chapter 893 further states, "[t]he previous provisions of ch. 893 are found in the recreated chapter in the same form that they previously existed or are redrafted only for greater clarity and ease of application except as otherwise noted." (Emphasis added). It is apparent from the Committee's comments that the Council considered the phrase "period of limitation" to be synonymous with the "statute of limitations" language of the former borrowing statute, § 893.205(1) (1977).
¶ 92. We have previously determined that the Judicial Council Notes to § 893.07 are entitled to "particularly heavy weight" in discerning the intent of the legislature. Guertin v. Harbor Assurance Co. of Bermuda, 141 Wis. 2d 622, 630, 415 N.W.2d 831 (1987) (citing Johnson v. Deltadynamics, Inc., 813 F.2d 944, 945 (7th Cir. 1987)). The Judicial Council not only drafted § 893.07, it actually sponsored the bill.
¶ 93. The Judicial Council Notes were presented to the Wisconsin Legislature when the bill that became § 893.07 was introduced. See 1979 A.B. 327, at p. 17 (March 21, 1979). Set forth on the first page of the bill is a notation that the bill was introduced "by request of Judicial Council."
¶ 94. There may be all sorts of good policy reasons, which the majority carefully sets forth, why *276statutes of repose should be included in § 893.07. It may be wise for Wisconsin to borrow other states' statutes of repose as well as statutes of limitations.2 However, these policy arguments, made from the vantage point of 2004, are no substitute for the legislative intent as set out at the time the statute was enacted in 1979. Even strong policy arguments cannot override clear legislative intent.
¶ 95. There may be analogous case law, interpreting different statutes, which the majority weaves into an artful analysis of why, based on an extension of those cases, we should conclude that statutes of repose ought to be included in § 893.07. Although this analysis supports the proposition that it may be appropriate to include statutes of repose under the borrowing statute, it is extraneous to the resolution of the question at hand. Even carefully crafted analysis cannot override clear legislative intent.
¶ 96. There may be an interesting and complex history of the evolution of statutes of repose. The *277majority skillfully charts the subtle shifts in meaning over time, drawing on extensive case law and multiple editions of legal dictionaries. Although the analysis provides an informative tour of a wide range of case law from many jurisdictions, there is no evidence that the Wisconsin legislature embraced or even grasped what the majority admits is a "largely unperceived shift" in the meaning attached to the phrase "statute of repose." Majority op., ¶ 49. Even a sophisticated appreciation of this subtle and "largely unperceived" shift in legal concepts cannot override clear legislative intent.
¶ 97. When the dust of policy arguments and analysis of cases involving other statutes settles, the inquiry remains: what was intended at the time this statute was enacted?
¶ 98. The majority may not agree with what the note states. It may think that public policy and case law interpreting other statutes should lead to a different result. However, our job is not to rewrite the statute or revise the intent of the legislature. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
¶ 99. I am authorized to state that Chief Justice SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON joins this opinion.

 I note that the heading of § 893.07 reads "[application of foreign statutes of limitation." While a heading is not part of the law, it can be persuasive in the interpretation given to the statute. Pure Milk Prods. Coop. v. Nat'l Farmers Org., 64 Wis. 2d 241, 253, 219 N.W.2d 564 (1974).

 I disagree with the majority's conclusion that Wisconsin's decision not to adopt a statute of repose is of no greater significance than Iowa having adopted a two-year limitations period for personal injury actions while Wisconsin has opted for a three-year statute of limitations. Majority op., ¶ 67. Statutes of repose are qualitatively as well as quantitatively different than statutes of limitations. As the majority opinion expressly notes, statutes of repose operate differently from statutes of limitations because they potentially cut off litigation before a cause of action arises. Majority op., ¶ 50 (quoting Hamilton v. Hamilton, 2003 WI 50, ¶ 29, 261 Wis. 2d 458, 661 N.W.2d 832.) Wisconsin's decision not to adopt a product liability statute of repose thus appears to me to be of great significance and represents contrary evidence of the majority's conclusion that Wis. Stat. § 893.07 borrows both statutes of limitations and statutes of repose.