Justia Wisconsin Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

The driver of a vehicle, owned by the driver's girlfriend's father, in which plaintiff was a passenger, lost control of the vehicle and drove into a ditch wherein the driver and one other passenger were killed and plaintiff sustained severe injuries. The vehicle was insured by Wisconsin American Mutual Insurance Company ("Wisconsin American") through an automobile insurance policy issued to the driver's girlfriend's father. The girlfriend permitted the driver to use the vehicle as long as he went to a local grocery store. The driver, instead, picked up passengers including plaintiff, and was driving to a party when the accident occurred. At issue was whether the alleged negligent entrustment of the vehicle constituted an independent concurrent cause of plaintiff's injuries sufficient to trigger coverage under Wisconsin American's insurance policy. The court held that the alleged negligent entrustment of the vehicle did not constitute an independent concurrent cause of plaintiff's injuries sufficient to trigger coverage when no coverage existed for the alleged negligent operation of the vehicle. Therefore, there was no coverage for plaintiff's negligent entrustment claim and Wisconsin American was entitled to summary judgment. The court also held that its holding was dispositive of the case and did not need to reach the issue of whether plaintiff's negligent entrustment claim was barred by claim or issue preclusion.

Defendant, 14-years-old at the time of the offense, was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide and physical abuse of a child for the death of a 13-year-old. At issue was whether defendant's sentence of life imprisonment without parole was cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution and, in the alternative, whether defendant's sentence should be modified. The court affirmed the sentence, applying a two-step approach employed by the United States Supreme Court in Graham v. Florida, and held that defendant failed to demonstrate that there was a national consensus against sentencing 14-year-olds to life imprisonment without parole when the crime was intentional homicide and that, in the exercise of its own independent judgment, the punishment was not categorically unconstitutional. The court also held that defendant's sentence was not unduly harsh or excessive; that defendant had not demonstrated clear and convincing evidence that the scientific research on adolescent brain development to which he referred constituted a "new factor;" and that defendant had not demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that the circuit court actually relied on the religious beliefs of the victim's family when imposing defendant's sentence. Accordingly, the court affirmed defendant's sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

In a termination of a parental rights proceeding, the court of appeals certified questions to the court to resolve the ambiguities and uncertainties regarding the use of Wis. Stat. 48.415 as a ground to terminate parental rights. The court concluded that section 48.415 prescribed a totality of the circumstances test. The court also concluded that the circuit court did not err when it denied the father's motion, in this case, for a directed verdict and that he waived his argument that the jury instruction was improper. Accordingly, the court held that the father's parental rights were lawfully terminated and affirmed the judgment of the circuit court.

Plaintiff filed an appeal and complaint against defendant where defendant claimed outstanding special assessments that were due and payable in full upon the sale of plaintiff's property. At issue was whether Wis. Stat. 66.0703(12)(a)'s 90-day appeal period applied where the special assessments were contingent, were levied after construction of the improvements were completed, or in the alternative, were fraudulent. Also at issue was whether Wis. Stat. 893.72 permitted plaintiff's appeal irrespective of the 90-day period of appeal in section 66.0703(12)(a). The court held that the circuit court properly dismissed the action where plaintiff's appeal and complaint were governed by the 90-day period in section 66.0703(12)(a) and that section 893.72 was inapplicable to the case and where it was undisputed that plaintiff filed its notice of appeal and complaint years after the 90-day period had passed.

Defendant was convicted of first-degree reckless injury while armed and being a felon in possession of a firearm. At issue was whether a fact-finder, in determining whether a defendant acted with utter disregard of human life, should give his conduct after a crime less weight than his conduct before and during the incident. Also at issue was whether there was a reasonable likelihood that the jury applied the circuit court's supplemental jury instruction in an unconstitutional manner. The court held that, in an utter disregard analysis, a defendant's conduct was not assigned more or less weight whether the conduct occurred before, during, or after the crime; and when evaluating whether a defendant acted with utter disregard for human life, a fact-finder should consider any relevant evidence in regard to the totality of the circumstances. The court also held that defendant had not established a reasonable likelihood that the jury applied the supplemental instruction in an unconstitutional manner where the instruction did not mislead the jury into believing that it could not consider defendant's relevant after-the-fact conduct in its determination on utter disregard for human life. Accordingly, the court reversed the court of appeals decision and remanded the case to allow that court to decide the other claims defendant raised before it.

Petitioner sought review of an unpublished decision of the court of appeals affirming a circuit court order denying her postconviction motion. At issue was whether the previously unknown information about petitioner's mental health, her addiction issues, and her traumatic upbringing constituted new factors that justified modification of her sentence. Also at issue was whether, in the alternative, petitioner received ineffective assistance of counsel when her attorney failed to investigate or present these factors to the circuit court during sentencing. The court held that petitioner had not presented any new factor that justified modification of her sentence; that the facts related to petitioner's mental health did not constitute a new factor where her mental health issues were known to the circuit court and taken into consideration at the time it imposed sentence; and that the circuit court appropriately exercised its discretion when it concluded that facts related to petitioner's addiction issues and her traumatic upbringing did not justify sentence modification. The court also held that petitioner had not demonstrated that she received ineffective assistance of counsel where she had not shown that her attorney's alleged shortcomings were prejudicial and that a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would be different.

Defendant appealed a conviction of first degree intentional homicide while using a dangerous weapon where the murdered man made statements to an ambulance driver and a police officer before he died that gave a brief description of the assailant ("Somerville statements"). At issue was whether the admission of the Sommerville statements and the prior statements of two recanting witnesses violated defendant's constitutional rights to confrontation and due process. The court affirmed the court of appeal's holding that the Somerville statements were properly admitted and did not violate defendant's Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses nor his corresponding right under the Wisconsin Constitution. The court also held that the failure to exclude prior inconsistent statements of recanting witnesses did not violate due process where the statements were admitted without objection and consistent with controlling Wisconsin law. The court further held that defendant was not prejudiced by his counsel's failure to urge the court to apply the law of another jurisdiction, nor can the circuit court be said to have committed plain error when it applied what was then the controlling law in Wisconsin.

Plaintiff appealed a grant of summary judgment in favor of Allstate Indemnity Company ("Allstate") where plaintiff's claims for coverage stemmed from the death of plaintiff's eight-year-old daughter at her ex-husband's home. At issue was whether plaintiff's claim for wrongful death was covered under the terms of a homeowner's insurance policy Allstate issued to plaintiff's ex-husband. The court held that summary judgment in favor of Allstate was improper where Allstate failed to meet its burden of demonstrating that the family exclusion unambiguously precluded coverage.

Defendant contended that his right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 7 of the Wisconsin Constitution was violated where he was arrested and charged with attempted second-degree sexual assault and false imprisonment. At issue was whether the United States Supreme Court's decision in Montejo v. Louisiana required the court to overrule Wisconsin precedent that established the parameters of a charged defendant's right to counsel in Wisconsin when a defendant, who had affirmatively invoked his constitutional right to counsel by retaining and receiving the services of counsel on pending charges, was subjected to questioning by law enforcement. The court held that Montejo did not sanction the interrogation that occurred where defendant's right to counsel under the federal or state constitution had attached and was invoked affirmatively by him before the investigator's questioning was initiated. The court also held that the circuit court's finding that the investigator knew defendant had secured legal counsel for the pending charges was not clearly erroneous and that defendant was not required to "re-invoke" his right to counsel when the investigator initiated interrogation. Therefore, the court held that defendant's statements must be suppressed.