Court Opinion

ID: 9519371
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:15:07.592311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:19.075404
License: Public Domain

SUNDBY, J.
(dissenting). The court concludes that the state Personnel Commission may order the state Department of Transportation to pay attorney fees on a discovery motion under sec. 804.12(l)(c), Stats. I disa*635gree. Section 804.12(l)(c) does not provide for the assessment of discovery costs against the state.
The court concludes that:
Because the legislature has unambiguously subjected the state and its agencies to the provisions of the [Fair Employment Act], and because, as the supreme court held in Watkins [v. LIRC, 117 Wis. 2d 753, 345 N.W.2d 482 (1984)], the terms of the act fairly imply the authority to recover costs and fees against those persons and entities so covered, we consider that any claim of sovereign immunity has been effectively waived. . ..
Maj. op. at 634 (emphasis added).
The sovereign immunity of the state may not be waived by implication. " [C]osts may not be taxed against the state or an administrative agency of the state unless expressly authorized by statute.” Martineau v. State Conservation Comm'n, 54 Wis. 2d 76, 79, 194 N.W.2d 664, 666 (1972) (emphasis added). See L.S. Tellier, Annotation, Liability of State, or Its Agency or Board, for Costs in Civil Action to Which It Is a Party, 72 A.L.R.2d 1379, 1399 (1960). We are bound to follow the precedent of supreme court decisions and our own decisions. In State v. Beloit Concrete Stone Co., 103 Wis. 2d 506, 513-14, 309 N.W.2d 28, 31 (Ct. App. 1981), we held that sec. 804.12(1)(c), Stats., does not authorize assessment of expenses on discovery motions against the state.
The court concludes, however, that because the legislature has subjected the state and its agencies to the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act (WFEA), sec. 111.32(6)(a), Stats., the legislature has waived the state's sovereign immunity from the payment of costs on discovery motions. However, such costs are not assessed under the WFEA, but under sec. 804.12(l)(c), Stats. *636There is nothing in that statute from which one may infer that the legislature intended to waive the state's sovereign immunity should a discovery motion be brought against the state or one of its agencies in the course of proceedings under the WFEA. Including the state and its agencies in a regulatory statute does not thereby subject them to general laws applicable to a legal controversy. Klingseisen v. State Highway Comm'n, 22 Wis. 2d 364, 370-71, 126 N.W.2d 40, 43 (1964).
The court also relies on the "make-whole" philosophy of Watkins. However, the Watkins court recognized that "the provisions of the Fair Employment Act do not expressly refer to an award of attorney's fees." 117 Wis. 2d 753, 759, 345 N.W.2d 482, 485 (1984). The court concluded that DILHR's authority to award reasonable attorney's fees to a prevailing complainant "may be fairly implied from [sec. 111.36(3)(b), Stats.]." Id. at 763, 345 N.W.2d at 487. However, the authority to award costs, including attorney's fees, against the state or its agencies may not be established by implication but must be established expressly. When the legislature has considered it in the public interest to authorize costs and fees against a state agency, it has done so expressly. See the Equal Access to Justice Act, secs. 227.485 and 814.245, Stats.
For these reasons I respectfully dissent.