Wisconsin's sovereign immunity law could change: Ministerial duty exception at issue in case.

• Date: 30 November 2009

Byline: David Ziemer

A two-justice concurrence in a Wisconsin Supreme Court opinion last term urged that governmental immunity be abolished for torts committed by state employees, even if the acts were committed within the employee's discretion, as opposed to acts in violation of an absolute ministerial duty.

Earlier this month, the court accepted review in a case that may give it the opportunity to do just what that concurrence advocated. Pries v. McMillon, No. 2008AP89.

Historically, states and municipalities were immune from liability in tort under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. But in Holytz v. City of Milwaukee, 17 Wis.2d 26, 115 N.W.2d 618 (1962), the Supreme Court abrogated immunity, a holding that was...