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Steiner v. Wisconsin American Mutual Insurance Co.6/9/2005
f the nonmoving party.
There are no issues of material fact at issue in the present case. The only question presented is one of law, namely, the interpretation and application of Wis. Stat. ยง 846.30 to the undisputed facts. This court determines this question of law independently of the circuit court and the court of appeals, benefiting from their analyses.
II.
We set forth the facts that are, for purposes of the motion for summary judgment, not in dispute.
Patricia Steiner and John Steiner, Sr., Patricia's husband, are the plaintiffs in this suit for personal injuries. They and John Steiner, Sr.'s brother, Robert Steiner, purchased the resort property at issue in this case in 1954. The three will be referred to as the land contract vendors.
The land contract vendors conveyed their interest in the property in 1995 to the Steiner Corporation by a series of land contracts. The plaintiffs' three sons, John, Jr., Patrick, and David Steiner, were the shareholders of Steiner Corporation. WAMIC provided Steiner Corporation liability insurance coverage for the property.
The Steiner Corporation apparently made a modest down payment and paid very little on the principal and interest under the land contract. By 1998 Steiner Corporation had stopped making payments on the land contract altogether. Third parties had liens on the property.
The land contract vendors filed suit in April 1999 to foreclose on the land contract and take back the property. They moved for a default judgment on the foreclosure action in August 1999. In response to this motion, on September 7, 1999, the circuit court held a hearing.
The land contract vendors' suit for foreclosure originally sought strict foreclosure, but at the hearing the parties and the circuit court agreed that specific performance (judicial sale) would be preferable in this case because of third-party debts, including a tax lien by the state.
The property was not sold by judicial sale. Instead, the circuit court entered a strict foreclosure judgment on October 19, 1999, not the previously agreed-upon specific performance. The judgment provided that if the Corporation did not pay the amount owed by October 7, 1999, "all right, title and interest" of the Steiner Corporation in the property would cease to exist; title would vest in the land contract vendors. The judgment read, in relevant part:
here is now due and unpaid on said Land Contract, as of September 7, 1999, the sum of [$178,330.15 plus costs, fees, and interest]. . . . That the said Land Contracts . . . be strictly foreclosed. That the Defendants shall, on or before October 7, 1999, pay the Clerk of this Court the total sum now due under said Contract [plus interest to redeem the contract.]
That if payment is not made within the time above specified, the real estate described herein, and any interest therein of Defendants and any persons claiming under them, and all right, title and interest of Defendants therein, shall cease to exist, with the title vesting in the name of Plaintiffs . . . .
[The judgment also contained provisions should Steiner Corporation redeem the property by paying the outstanding amount.]
The judgment's typewritten date line reads: "Dated September ____, 1999." "September" is crossed out and "October" is hand-written over it; the blank is filled in with "19th." This October 19 judgment provides for a redemption period ending 30 days after the September 7 hearing, or October 7.
A final judgment was entered on December 1, 1999. The final judgment states that the October 19, 1999 order provided for
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