City of Stoughton v. Erik J. Olson

2020 WI App 69, 950 N.W.2d 852, 394 Wis. 2d 325
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedSeptember 3, 2020
Docket2019AP001872
StatusPublished

This text of 2020 WI App 69 (City of Stoughton v. Erik J. Olson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Stoughton v. Erik J. Olson, 2020 WI App 69, 950 N.W.2d 852, 394 Wis. 2d 325 (Wis. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

2020 WI App 69

COURT OF APPEALS OF WISCONSIN PUBLISHED OPINION

Case No.: 2019AP1872

Complete Title of Case:

CITY OF STOUGHTON,

PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,

V.

ERIK J. OLSON AND CARTER J. SMITH,

DEFENDANTS-RESPONDENTS.

Opinion Filed: September 3, 2020 Submitted on Briefs: February 26, 2020

JUDGES: Kloppenburg, Graham, and Nashold, JJ.

Appellant ATTORNEYS: On behalf of the plaintiff-appellant, the cause was submitted on the briefs of Susan K. Allen and Gregory M. Jacobs of Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, Milwaukee.

Respondent ATTORNEYS: On behalf of the defendants-respondents, the cause was submitted on the brief of Michele Perreault of DeWitt LLP, Madison. 2020 WI App 69

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. September 3, 2020 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2019AP1872 Cir. Ct. No. 2019CV54

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS

APPEAL from an order of the circuit court for Dane County: JOHN D. HYLAND, Judge. Affirmed.

Before Kloppenburg, Graham, and Nashold, JJ. No. 2019AP1872

¶1 GRAHAM, J. This appeal is about the meaning of the term “bowling centers” as it is used in WIS. STAT. § 125.07(3)(a) (2017-18).1 That statute generally prohibits anyone under the legal drinking age from entering or being on premises that are licensed to sell alcohol,2 but it lists many exemptions, including one that allows underage individuals to be on the premises of “bowling centers” that have alcohol licenses. See § 125.07(3)(a)3.

¶2 The parties dispute whether a dedicated bar area within a bowling center is covered by this exemption. The City of Stoughton contends that any portion of a bowling center that is dedicated primarily to the sale or consumption of alcohol is carved out from the exemption. The defendants, Erik Olson and Carter Smith, contend that the exemption applies to the entire center, including the bar area on the premises. We agree with the defendants and therefore affirm the circuit court’s order, which dismissed citations that the City issued to the defendants for violating WIS. STAT. § 125.07(3)(a).

1 All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2017-18 version unless otherwise noted. 2 This prohibition extends only to underage individuals who are not accompanied by a “parent, guardian or spouse who has attained the legal drinking age.” WIS. STAT. § 125.07(3)(a). Throughout this opinion, when we refer to “underage individuals,” we mean underage individuals who are not accompanied by a parent, legal guardian, or spouse of legal drinking age.

The parties dispute whether the City has shown that the underage individual at issue in this case was not accompanied by a parent, legal guardian, or spouse of legal drinking age. We assume, without deciding, that the individual was not accompanied.

2 No. 2019AP1872

BACKGROUND

¶3 Carter Smith owns Viking Lanes, a bowling center3 in Stoughton that provides places for patrons to bowl, dine, drink, listen to music, and play volleyball and other sports. Viking Lanes holds a combination Class B alcohol license permitting it to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. See WIS. STAT. § 125.51(3). The alcohol license covers the entire Viking Lanes building.

¶4 In 2017, a Stoughton police officer encountered an underage individual playing pool in what the officer described as a “bar area” within the Viking Lanes center. Nothing in the record suggests that the officer observed the individual purchase or consume alcohol. The officer issued a citation to Smith, as well as to Erik Olson, who was tending the bar area at the time, for violating a Stoughton ordinance that adopted WIS. STAT. § 125.07(3).4 See § 125.07(3)(b) (authorizing penalties against a “licensee or permittee who directly or indirectly permits an underage person to enter or be on a licensed premises in violation of par. (a).”). The statute and Stoughton’s ordinance also authorize officers to cite underage individuals for violating the prohibition on entering a licensed premises, see § 125.07(4)(a)3., but nothing in the record indicates that the officer issued such a citation to the underage individual in this case.

3 Although the City argues that certain portions of the Viking Lanes premises do not qualify for the “bowling center” exemption listed in WIS. STAT. § 125.07(3)(a)3., the City does not dispute that Viking Lanes is a bowling center. 4 STOUGHTON, WI GEN. CODE § 14-33 (2017) makes any violation of WIS. STAT. § 125.07 a municipal violation.

3 No. 2019AP1872

¶5 The city municipal court found Smith and Olson guilty of violating Stoughton’s ordinance, and both defendants appealed to the circuit court, where their separate cases were consolidated. The defendants argued that there was no basis for the citations because the bar area in Viking Lanes is covered by the statutory exemption for “bowling centers.” The City argued that the exemption does not apply to any portion of the premises dedicated primarily to the sale or consumption of alcohol. For this proposition, the City relied on State v. Ludwig, 31 Wis. 2d 690, 143 N.W.2d 548 (1966), an opinion that interpreted an earlier version of the statute and concluded that an exemption for “bowling alleys” did not apply to a “barroom” that was under the same roof as a bowling alley. Id. at 698.

¶6 The circuit court determined that the statutory exemption for “bowling centers” covers the “entire facility”—not just the part of the center where individuals “engage in bowling.” Based on this interpretation of the statute, the court entered an order dismissing the citations, and the City appeals.

DISCUSSION

¶7 This case presents a matter of statutory interpretation, a question of law that appellate courts review de novo. Nowell v. City of Wausau, 2013 WI 88, ¶19, 351 Wis. 2d 1, 838 N.W.2d 852. When interpreting a statute, we begin with its language, State ex rel. Kalal v. Circuit Court for Dane Cnty., 2004 WI 58, ¶45, 271 Wis. 2d 633, 681 N.W.2d 110, and we consider the “scope, context, and purpose” of that language, id., ¶48. We also examine the history of a statute and case law interpreting it to determine the meaning of words. Force ex rel. Welcenbach v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., 2014 WI 82, ¶31, 356 Wis. 2d 582, 850 N.W.2d 866.

4 No. 2019AP1872

¶8 The prohibition at issue is found in WIS. STAT. § 125.07(3)(a), which states in pertinent part: “An underage person not accompanied by his or her parent, guardian or spouse who has attained the legal drinking age may not enter, knowingly attempt to enter or be on any premises for which a license or permit for the retail sale of alcohol beverages has been issued.” The exemption for “bowling centers” is found in § 125.07(3)(a)3., which is set forth in full in footnote 7 below.

¶9 The City argues that the circuit court dismissed the citations based on an incorrect interpretation of WIS. STAT. § 125.07(3)(a), and that the “bowling centers” exemption does not apply to any portion of the premises that is dedicated primarily to the sale or consumption of alcohol. The defendants disagree. They argue that § 125.07(3)(a) means what it appears to say—that underage individuals may be present in any portion of a bowling center that is licensed to sell and serve alcohol.

¶10 Both parties’ arguments focus on the statutory history of WIS. STAT.

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In Re Marriage of Lang
467 N.W.2d 772 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1991)
Buettner v. Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services
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State v. Ludwig
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2020 WI App 69, 950 N.W.2d 852, 394 Wis. 2d 325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-stoughton-v-erik-j-olson-wisctapp-2020.