Statutory Interpretation Dispute Resolution.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

WI Supreme Court

Case Name: Dr. Stuart White, et al. v. City of Watertown

Case No.: 2019 WI 9

Focus: Statutory Interpretation Dispute Resolution

Some adjoining landowners in the City of Watertown have a long-standing dispute over who must pay to construct and maintain partition fencing between their properties. This case, however, is not about the neighbors' dispute, at least not directly. It is instead about the mechanism by which that dispute is addressed. The Whites say the City of Watertown is responsible for conducting a statutorily-prescribed procedure for resolving fence-related disputes. The City of Watertown, on the other hand, says the statutes authorize only townsnot citiesto conduct such proceedings.

Although we affirm the court of appeals, we have traveled a different analytical route. The court of appeals reasoned that the legislature inadvertently eliminated a city's authority to administer the Enforcement Procedures in 1878. Its conclusion that Chapter 90 is ambiguous probably stems chiefly from the parties' failure to bring Wis. Stat. 990.01(42) to its attention. However, as we described above, the legislature never eliminated a city's authority to...