Court Opinion

ID: 9726602
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:59:45.806383+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:28.813365
License: Public Domain

JON P. WILCOX, J.
¶ 41. (concurring). I agree with the majority's conclusion that Wis. Stat. § 895.52 *694(1995-96)1 confers immunity upon David Grasser. However, for the reasons expressed in my dissent to Minnesota Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Paper Recycling of LaCrosse, 2001 WI 64, 244 Wis. 2d 290, 627 N.W.2d 527, 1 do not join the majority's conclusion that courts examining whether a particular activity falls within the scope of § 895.52 must consider the nature of the property on which the activity occurs and the subjective intent of the property owner to open his or her property to recreational activity. See majority op. at ¶ 13.
¶ 42. Section 895.52 is plain on its face. It provides that "no owner and no officer, employe or agent of an owner is liable for the death of, any injury to, or any death or injury caused by, a person engaging in a recreational activity on the owner's property." Wis. Stat. § 895.52(2)(b). This broad grant of immunity applies to all "real property and buildings, structures and improvements thereon."2 Wis. Stat. § 895.52(l)(f). Nothing in the statute further qualifies the type of property to which § 895.52 immunity attaches.
¶ 43. Until recently, this court recognized as much:
The unambiguous language of the recreational use statute sets the following precondition for immunity — that the injury be to or caused by "a person engaging in a recreational activity on the owner's property. . . ." Wis. Stat. § 895.52(2)(b). There is no language [in § 895.52] that conditions immunity upon affirmative acts on the part of the owner to grant permission or otherwise "open" land.
*695The legislature has made it clear that previous decisions by Wisconsin courts that are more restrictive, implying a requirement that lands be "open," are overruled.
Verdoljak v. Mosinee Paper Corp., 200 Wis. 2d 624, 634-35, 547 N.W.2d 602 (1996). Therefore, this court traditionally has held that § 895.52 conditions immunity upon the nature of the property user's activity, not on the nature or "openness" of the property. Id. at 631; Sievert v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., 190 Wis. 2d 623, 632, 528 N.W.2d 413 (1995).
¶ 44. Nonetheless, the majority posits that the scope of § 895.52 recreational immunity is unclear and is guided by a "seeming lack of basic underlying principles." Majority op. at ¶ 12. This conclusion, in itself, is rather curious in light of the fact that the legislature distinctly explained the basic principles underlying § 895.52: "The legislature intends by [§ 895.52] to limit the liability of property owners toward others who use their property for recreational activities. . . . [T]his legislation should be liberally construed in favor of property owners to protect them from liability." 1983 Wis. Act 418 (act creating § 895.52). But the majority believes that its professed confusion regarding the principles underlying § 895.52 permits it to inject its view of what the law should say. Consequently, it acknowledges two recent court-created limits on the type of property to which § 895.52 applies and, in doing so, shifts the statutory precondition for recreational immunity from the nature of the property user's activity to the nature of the property on which the activity occurs.
¶ 45. To be sure, the majority frames these limits as a list of factors courts must consider in examining the nature of an activity, rather than as restrictions on *696the type of property to which § 895.52 applies. Regardless of how the majority spins this issue, however, the result is the same: Courts may withhold recreational immunity from property owners who own what the courts deem to be "non-recreational property." Thus, the type of property to which § 895.52 immunity attaches is no longer defined by § 895.52, but instead, by the courts.
¶ 46. As I explained in my dissent to Minnesota Fire, I will not join the majority in ignoring the clear legislative directive in § 895.52. Accordingly, while I concur in the majority's disposition of the case at hand, I do not join the majority in recognizing the new judicially-legislated limits on the types of property to which § 895.52 immunity extends.

 All subsequent references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 1995-96 version unless otherwise indicated.

 Section 895.52 also applies to "the waters of the state, as defined under s.144.01(18).” Wis. Stat. § 895.52(l)(f).