Court Opinion

ID: 9533086
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:28:13.874954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:54.518570
License: Public Domain

VERGERONT, J.
(concurring). I concur in the reasoning and the result of the majority's decision, but write separately to express my concern over the reach of our decision in Johnson v. City of Edgerton, 207 Wis. 2d 343, 558 N.W.2d 653 (Ct. App. 1996). I agree that we are bound by Johnson, and Johnson compels the conclusion that the Town and County in this case are immune, under § 893.80(4), STATS., from suit for injunctive relief. Our decision in Johnson, in turn, was compelled, in our view, by the reasoning of the supreme court's decision in DNR v. City of Waukesha, 184 Wis. 2d 178, 515 N.W.2d 888 (1994), which addressed § 893.80(1), not § 893.80(4). Under Johnson, a citizen may not obtain injunctive relief against a municipality or a municipal official even if equitable estoppel would otherwise lie to prevent the municipality from enforcing an ordinance. I recognize that generally erroneous acts of municipal officers do not afford a basis to estop a municipality from enforcing ordinances enacted pursuant to the police power. See State ex rel. Westbrook v. City of New Berlin, 120 Wis. 2d 256, 262, 354 N.W.2d 206, 209 (Ct. App. 1984). However there are situations in which it may be appropriate to enjoin on equitable grounds a municipality from enforcing an ordinance. See, e.g., Russell Dairy Stores v. City of Chippewa Falls, 272 Wis. 138, 148, 74 N.W.2d 759, 765 (1956) (city is estopped from revoking permit to plaintiff for driveway installation after plaintiff had installed the driveway and used it for several months, and is enjoined from *287enforcing ordinance against plaintiff as to that driveway).
The case before us may not be one of those few cases where a municipality should be equitably estopped from enforcing an ordinance, but even if it were, under Johnson the municipality would be immune from suit seeking injunctive relief. I question whether the legislature intended such a result when it enacted § 893.80(4), Stats. ■