Court Opinion

ID: 9734607
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:39:11.824193+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:49.370930
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part). I agree with the court’s disposition of the four issues decided in the opinion, but I would not remand the remaining two issues to the court of appeals for decision.
All six issues are interrelated and our having decided four issues puts us in a better position than the court of appeals to decide the remaining two issues with minimum delay and maximum efficiency. We are familiar with the parties’ arguments and the record in the case and there is no reason why we could not render a decision on the two issues today. Our remand to the court of appeals will delay the decision on these issues for at least 20 days (the time for a motion for reconsideration) and more probably for several weeks or months due to that court’s heavy workload. The court of appeals will have to go over material we have already laboriously reviewed, and the losing party on these two issues may seek review in this court, causing additional delay. Remand is a wasteful duplication of decisional effort.
The majority apparently agrees with the court of appeals that the remaining two issues on appeal are not of “statewide concern” which would “result in the development of new law in this state,” and therefore in these respects the issues do not meet several of this court’s criteria for granting a petition for review. Sec. 809.62 (1), Stats. 1979-80. While I agree with the majority’s and the court of appeals’ preliminary assessment of the importance of these issues, that assessment is not determinative of the question of remanding these issues.
*46This case is here on our granting direct review upon certification from the court of appeals. Under our statutes and rules this court takes jurisdiction over an appeal upon certification from the court of appeals. The court of appeals does not certify, and this court does not take jurisdiction over, discrete legal questions within the appeal. See secs. 808.05(2), 809.61, Stats. 1979-80; Le-far, Internal Operating Procedures of Appellate Courts 76-78 (1976). Although I believe this court has the power to remand these issues to the court of appeals, in the interest of judicial economy, speedy resolution of appeals, reduced costs to the litigants, and finality of decisions, I would have this court decide the entire appeal in this case.