Court Opinion

ID: 9671670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:41:39.353486+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:11.418328
License: Public Domain

GARTZKE, P.J.
(dissenting). Statutes seldom expressly state public policies. The 1973 amendment to the predecessor of sec. 632.32(4)(a), Stats., is an exam-*455pie. The amendment did not expressly adopt a public policy against reducing clauses applicable to uninsured motorist provisions. But that was the legislative policy. We know that from the legislative council's note to the 1973 amendment concerning the sentence added to the statute. That note repudiated the public policy judicially announced in Leatherman v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., 52 Wis. 2d 644, 190 N.W.2d 904 (1971).
The 1975 amendment removed the sentence added in 1973, again with no express statement of public policy. But the 1975 amendment embodied no intent to revert to the public policy announced in Leatherman. We know that from the legislative council's note to the 1975 amendment. The note states that the sentence is omitted because it "does not seem to add anything."
When the legislature's view of public policy conflicts with that of the courts, the legislative view must prevail, unless it involves inherent judicial powers. I would affirm.