Sufficiency of Evidence.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

WI Court of Appeals District IV

Case Name: Island Camping, Inc., v. Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Case No.: 2019AP2284

Officials: FITZPATRICK, P.J.

Focus: Sufficiency of Evidence

For over thirty years, Island Camping, Inc. has operated a commercial campground on an approximately twenty-acre narrow strip of land along the Mississippi River. A bridge spanning the river between Minnesota and Wisconsin has stood over a slice of the Island Camping property the entire time it has operated the campground. The Department of Transportation ("DOT"), through eminent domain procedures, permanently took a .64-acre portion of the Island Camping property, as well as a temporary limited easement of 1.61 acres, for the construction of a replacement bridge over the Mississippi River and demolition of the previous bridge. In this lawsuit, Island Camping contends that the DOT's taking of its property left the remainder of its property as an "uneconomic remnant" within the meaning of WIS. STAT. 32.05(3m) (2019- 20) and, as a result, the DOT is required by statute to purchase the remainder of the Island Camping property.

Following a trial to the Pierce County Circuit Court, the court concluded that the DOT's partial taking, along with the effects of the TLE and the construction of the replacement bridge and demolition of the previous bridge, have caused the remaining Island Camping property to be an uneconomic remnant. The DOT appeals and argues that the circuit court based its decision on "improper considerations" not within the analytical framework of WIS. STAT 32.05(3m). The first subject area of the circuit court's purported error is the court's reliance on evidence concerning...