Claim Preclusion.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

WI Court of Appeals District III

Case Name: Eagle Cove Camp & Conference Center, Inc., et al. v. County of Oneida, et al.

Case No.: 2018AP940

Officials: Stark, P.J., Hruz and Seidl, JJ.

Focus: Claim Preclusion

Eagle Cove Camp & Conference Center, Inc., and Arthur, Wesley, and Randall Jaros, as trustees of various family trusts (collectively, "Eagle Cove"), appeal an order dismissing their claims asserting various violations of their rights under the Wisconsin Constitution. These violations allegedly stem from Oneida County's and the Oneida County Board of Adjustment's refusal years ago to rezone certain real property on Squash Lake or to grant a conditional use permit on that property so that Eagle Cove could develop a year-round Bible camp.

Eagle Cove previously litigated numerous claims relating to these denials in federal court, including a claim for a violation of Eagle Cove's religious liberties under article I, section 18 of the Wisconsin Constitution. The federal district court, exercising both federal question and supplemental jurisdiction, dismissed all of Eagle Cove's civil claims on their merits, including its claim under the Wisconsin Constitution. The court declined, however, to take supplemental jurisdiction of a certiorari claim Eagle Cove had advanced against the board of adjustment, preferring to have that claim adjudicated in state court given the limited scope of certiorari review.

Eagle Cove subsequently commenced the present action, seeking not only certiorari review but also advancing a variety of civil claims under the Wisconsin Constitution. The circuit court dismissed the non-certiorari claims based upon its conclusion that claim preclusion applied, insofar as Eagle Cove brought or could have brought the civil claims as part of its federal action. Eagle Cove appeals this determination and the denial of its motion for reconsideration, in which it asserted that claim preclusion should not apply because of an intervening change in the case law...