State ex rel. Progreso Development Co. v. Wisconsin Real Estate Brokers Board

231 N.W. 628, 202 Wis. 155, 1930 Wisc. LEXIS 248
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 1930
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 231 N.W. 628 (State ex rel. Progreso Development Co. v. Wisconsin Real Estate Brokers Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Progreso Development Co. v. Wisconsin Real Estate Brokers Board, 231 N.W. 628, 202 Wis. 155, 1930 Wisc. LEXIS 248 (Wis. 1930).

Opinion

Rosenberry, C. J.

A determination of the issues raised upon this appeal requires a consideration of the so-called Wisconsin real estate brokers’ law, being ch. 136, Stats. 1929. The material parts of the law are printed in the margin.1

[159]*159The act specifically provides that a corporation may be a broker. The relator, although a foreign corporation, having been licensed to do business in the state of Wisconsin, is entitled to the same privileges and rights in that respect as a domestic corporation. While the state may exclude foreign corporations, when once admitted they have the same rights and are entitled to the protection of the constitutional guaranties the same as is a domestic corporation. Maryland Cas. Co. v. Industrial Comm. 198 Wis. 202, 221 N. W. 747, 223 N. W. 444; Thronson v. Universal Mfg. Co. 164 Wis. 44, 159 N. W. 575.

The only qualifications prescribed by the act are that the licensee shall be trustworthy and competent. Competency is defined by sub. (2.) of sec. 136.05. The issues in this case present no question in regard to the competency of the applicant. The term trustworthy is not defined in the act. [160]*160What the legislature had in mind as constituting trustworthiness is indicated to some extent by the provisions of sec. 136.08 (printed in the margin), wherein is set out the matters which constitute grounds for revocation of a license. Certainly no applicant who was found to have done any of the things which constitute grounds for revocation could be held to be trustworthy. The legislature, however, did not limit the board to consideration of those matters in determining what constitutes trustworthiness. It becomes necessary for the court, therefore, to determine what power or authority was conferred upon the board in that respect. In this connection specific attention is called to sec. 136.09, which provides for a public hearing upon notice with an opportunity to be heard, and requires that the testimony presented and proceedings had in such hearing shall be taken in shorthand and preserved as the record of the board, and [161]*161requires the board to make its findings and determination thereon and send a copy to the interested party.

We have recently had occasion to consider the term findings as used in the workmen’s compensation act. Tesch v. Industrial Comm. 200 Wis. 616, 229 N. W. 194. The findings are required to be upon the testimony presented and the proceedings had upon the hearing and are obviously meant to be findings of fact. Upon these findings the board was required to make its determination or conclusion. The conclusion reached by the board in' this case was that “the applicant has failed to furnish this board with satisfactory proof of its trustworthiness and competency.” This manifestly is not a finding of fact but the board’s determination. The findings of fact are extended and we shall not set them out in ex tensó.

[162]*162By way of introduction to its findings the board inserted a paragraph entitled “The Board’s Position,” in which it is said:

“We wish to make it clear in this order that the action of this board in denying the above application must not be construed as passing upon the lower Rio Grande Valley, as a declaration of the commission that the projects of the lower Rio Grande Valley are not legitimate, nor as an act to discriminate against the state of Texas. This board has made the same careful inquiry relating to all projects located in states outside of Wisconsin and has gone so far as to make close inquiry of all Wisconsin brokers who were selling Wisconsin land of any questionable character. The board has uniformly denied applications of several organizations to sell land' in the state of Florida during the Florida boom, lands also located in the state of California and in various other states.” . . .
[163]*163“This board also has in mind that the granting of a license to a person who proposes to sell Texas land in the state of Wisconsin, particularly after the exhaustive hearings which have been conducted by the board, carries with it a commendation of the project which is to be offered for sale to Wisconsin residents. It virtually amounts to giving the project a stamp of approval, and the board must be very hesitant in granting such application where it appears that such project is extremely speculative and, if in any reasonable degree doubtful in this respect, should not grant the application.”

The board makes an extended quotation from the case entitled State ex rel. Durham Tropical Land Corp. v. Brokers Board, 192 Wis. 396, 211 N. W. 292.

The findings are under eight heads: (1) Purpose for which land is to be sold. (2) Methods of sale. Under this head is the following finding:

[164]*164“The land is to be offered for sale by the applicant as an investment opportunity, applicant making promises of an annual net return after the first four years of ten per cent, upon the investment of the purchaser. This feature, however, is not contained in the written instruments which are signed by the applicant and given to purchasers but is a matter of sales talk.”

(3) Price at which land is to be offered for sale. (4) The Texas boom. (5) Experimental stage, under which heading is the following:

“When we consider that the land of the applicant is to be sold for the average purchase price of $1,250 per acre in a project which must be regarded as experimental, this board, in view of the high duty which it owes to the public interest, must exercise great care and caution before granting permission to sell such land to Wisconsin residents for investment purposes.”

(6) Care and attention. (7) Vendor lien notes. (8) Water supply.

Upon these findings, which contain nothing in any way reflecting upon the character or business methods of the applicant or its officers, the board bases its determination as to the trustworthiness and competency of the applicant. From the findings it is clear that the board placed a very broad interpretation upon that part of the act which defines its powers. It did this very largely if not wholly in reliance upon the decision of this court in the Durham Tropical Land Corp. Case, supra. However, we see nothing in that decision which warrants the conclusion that the board reached in this case. In that case the applicant had refused to furnish a financial statement which had been called for under the provisions of what now appears as sub. (e) of sec. 136.05 (1). The board was of the opinion that the refusal of the applicant to furnish evidence of its financial status constituted grounds for denying its application. This determination of the board was upheld by the court. The trustworthiness of a corporation must to some extent at least [165]*165depend upon its financial standing. While a corporation may, like an individual, have a good reputation for trustworthiness, ordinarily it is not considered trustworthy in a business sense in a higher degree than is fairly warranted by its net assets. The financial standing of the applicant in the Durham Case was therefore a material factor without which the board could not properly determine the question before it. In the statement of its position the board quotes the following from the opinion in the

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Bluebook (online)
231 N.W. 628, 202 Wis. 155, 1930 Wisc. LEXIS 248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-progreso-development-co-v-wisconsin-real-estate-brokers-wis-1930.