Court Opinion

ID: 9740143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:28:52.147691+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:16.447617
License: Public Domain

LUNDSTEN, J.
¶ 55. (concurring). I write separately because I do not agree with the majority's conclusion that petitioners preserved the one argument which the majority deems worthy: that the Town lacked the power to assess the legal fees and, consequently, the one-year time bar in Wis. Stat. § 893.72 did not apply to the assessment of those legal fees. I join the entire majority opinion with one exception: its conclusion in paragraph 27 that petitioners presented the above argument with sufficient clarity to avoid waiver.
¶ 56. The majority does not fault the trial court for missing the meritorious legal fees argument "because petitioners did not give this argument the prominence or the development it deserved." Majority at ¶ 27. This is an understatement. The trial court can be forgiven for missing the argument because it was completely undeveloped. Indeed, the argument is only recognizable if one already understands the argument and has it in mind. Nothing in the memorandum submitted by petitioners below remotely resembles the majority's own analysis in paragraphs 20 to 26 of its decision. The petitioners merely assert: "Sec. 66.60 allows for inclusion of the cost for legal services in a special assessment only for proposed work or improvement." This sentence was not sufficient to apprise the trial court of the meritorious legal fees argument for at least three reasons: (1) the sentence appears under a subheading directing the reader's attention to a different argument; (2) the general reference to Wis. Stat. *360§ 66.60 is not helpful because that statute covers fully two and one-half pages of statutory text; and (3) the sentence is simply too vague. A like sentence in a subsequent subsection of the memorandum is similarly vague and unhelpful.
¶ 57. It is noteworthy that petitioners filed a motion for reconsideration which omits even an arguable reference to the one meritorious argument. The majority finds it "[i]nexplicabl[e]" that petitioners did not raise this one meritorious argument in their reconsideration motion. Majority at ¶ 28. However, the most obvious explanation for such a glaring omission is that the argument was not knowingly made in the prior memorandum.
¶ 58. Accordingly, in my .view, the first time the petitioners raise their one meritorious argument in a recognizable form is on appeal. As such, they have waived their right to review. Nonetheless, the waiver rule is one of judicial administration, and appellate courts have the authority to ignore waiver. See Olmsted v. Circuit Court, 2000 WI App 261, ¶ 12, 240 Wis. 2d 197, 622 N.W.2d 29. In this case, I would ignore waiver because the correct analysis shows that Wis. Stat. § 893.72 does not apply to the assessment of legal fees and a published decision on this topic is desirable.
¶ 59. Therefore, I respectfully concur.