Court Opinion

ID: 9726313
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:43:45.109121+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:25.988061
License: Public Domain

Robert W. Hansen, J.
(dissenting). “Additional” is the word that derails, as the writer sees it, the logic of the majority opinion here. Section 2-150.5, Milwaukee Code of Ordinances, was entitled: “Additional rest days. . . .” It provided that each Milwaukee fire fighter was to be given “. . . an additional six (6) off-days per annum. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.) The word “additional” has a clear and precise meaning. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines “additional” as “coming by way of addition: added, further,” defining “addition” to mean “anything added: increase, augmentation.” Funk and Wagnall’s College Standard Dictionary defines “additional” as “being in addition; supplementary,” defining “addition” to mean “The act of adding *21or that which is added; an increase; annex; accession.” Under either definition, “additional” means that something is being added to something already in existence. To give six additional days off is to assure that the fire fighters would have to work six less days than they would have had to work if the ordinance had not been enacted. To include in the computation days that they would not have worked anyhow, is to do something less than giving them six fewer days to work. The writer sees no ambiguity in what “additional” must be read to mean. There is no reason to seek secondary sources as to legislative intent where the issue relates to a word that has a clear and exact meaning. Subsequent common council action may show that the aldermen repented of their earlier generosity, but it cannot reach back to change an ordinance that gave fire fighters an additional six days off to one that gave much less than that. On the issue of what is a reasonable construction of “an additional six (6) off-days,” the writer disagrees with the court majority, and on this issue only would reverse and remand for further proceedings in the trial court.