Court Opinion

ID: 9709742
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:53:51.00031+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:51.178610
License: Public Domain

SUNDBY, J.
(dissenting). The majority reaches a result which makes eminent good sense, but requires that we judicially amend § 234.07(1), Stats., to read: "Upon satisfaction of the authority's loan with respect to *151a project, any surplus in excess of the distributions allowed by this section shall be paid to the authority [WHEDA]." (Emphasized language added.) Unfortunately, however, the statute reads: "Upon the dissolution of the limited-profit entity[,} any surplus in excess of the distributions allowed by this section shall be paid to the authority." (Emphasis added.) When the life of the authority's loan with respect to a project ends, the limited-profit entity is not thereupon dissolved. A limited-profit entity may have dozens of loans with WHEDA. The legislature may have contemplated that any surplus in excess of the distributions allowed by § 234.07(1) could be used by the limited-profit entity to provide additional low and moderate income housing, but once the limited-profit entity dissolves, any reserve or reserves revert to WHEDA.
The majority's construction of "dissolution of the limited-profit entity" requires that there be a separate limited-profit entity for each loan and agreement made with WHEDA. I submit that the definition of "limited-profit entity" does not permit that peculiar result.
Section 234.01(8), STATS., defines "limited-profit entity" as follows:
"Limited-profit entity" means any person or trust which, in its articles of incorporation or comparable documents of organization, or by written agreement with the authority, provides that:
(a) As a condition of acceptance of a loan or advance under this chapter, the limited-profit entity shall enter into an agreement with the authority providing for limitations of rents, profits, dividends and disposition of property or franchises
Note that para, (a) speaks of "a" loan not "the" loan.
*152Thus, in its documents of organization, the "limited-profit entity" must provide that as a condition of any loan or advance made by WHEDA, it shall enter into an agreement with the authority in which it agrees to limit its rents, its profits, its dividends, and agrees to the disposition of any property or franchise subject to such an agreement. I see no reason why a limited-profit entity may not enter into numerous loan and operational agreements with WHEDA without creating a separate limited-profit entity for each project and each loan or operational agreement.
Clearly, however, the members of a limited-profit entity may never realize more equity than the entity had at the time the authority made the final mortgage advance with respect to any project. Section 234.07(1), Stats., provides in part:
With respect to every project the authority shall, pursuant to rules adopted by it, establish the entity's equity at the time of making of the final mortgage advance and, for purposes of this section, that figure shall remain constant during the life of the authority's loan with respect to such project.
Plainly, the limited-profit entity's equity does not increase after the life of the authority's loan with respect to a project has expired. That does not mean, however, that any surplus in excess of that equity must thereupon revert to WHEDA. The legislature has said that any such surplus shall revert to WHEDA "[ujpon the dissolution of the limited-profit entity."
We have been cautioned that in the absence of ambiguity in a statute, only the plain meaning of words in the normal sense, as used in the context of the statute, can be looked to. Girouard v. Jackson Circuit Ct, 155 Wis. 2d 148, 156, 454 N.W.2d 792, 795-96 (1990). *153"Resort to definitions, statutory or dictionary, is appropriate for the purpose of determining meaning that is plain on the face of the statute. It is not necessary or appropriate to find ambiguity before looking to word definitions." Id. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language 570 (2d ed. 1987), defines "dissolution" as follows: "[L]egal termination, esp. of business activity, with the final distribution of assets, the fixing of liabilities, etc." The satisfaction of a limited-profit entity's mortgage obligation to WHEDA does not dissolve the entity — there is no sale of the project's assets, settlement of liabilities, and other consequences which accompany the dissolution of a corporation or partnership.
How then is the public purpose of limiting profits of a limited-profit entity to be ensured? I find the answer in the definition of "limited-profit entity." Section 234.01(8)(b), STATS., provides in part:
If the limited-profit entity receives a loan or advance under this chapter, the chairperson of the authority, acting with the prior approval of the majority of members of the authority, may, if he or she determines . . . that the limited-profit entity is ... not carrying out the intent and purposes of this chapter, appoint to the board of directors or other comparable controlling body of such limited-profit entity a number of new directors or persons, which number shall be sufficient to constitute a voting majority of such board or controlling body....
I believe WHEDA continues to have this authority to assume control of a limited-profit entity, even after its agreement with the entity expires, because the entity's use of any surplus or replacement reserve for purposes not consonant with ch. 234, STATS., would not carry out the intent and purposes of the chapter. I *154realize my reconciliation of the statutes may not be entirely satisfactory because it keeps WHEDA in a "watch-dog" position after a mortgage has been retired and its agreement with an entity has expired; however, my construction does not require that we engage in judicial amendment of the statutes.
For these reasons I respectfully dissent.