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Steiner v. Wisconsin American Mutual Insurance Co.6/9/2005
the statute, stating: "Were it not for the Walker v. Dorney case I would not suggest legislation----I never previously considered the possibility that a judge hearing a contested strict foreclosure action would even have the authority to issue a foreclosure judgment without a redemption period."
The second and final sentence of the statute, at issue today, provides the mechanism for finalizing the judgment of strict foreclosure. It reads: "No judgment of strict foreclosure is final until the court enters an order after the expiration of the redemption period confirming that no redemption has occurred and making the judgment of strict foreclosure absolute." Wisconsin Stat. § 846.30 does not explicitly address whether the final order merely confirms that title has been transferred at an earlier date or whether the final order transfers title. The parties dispute the import of this sentence, and they present alternative interpretations of the sentence.
WAMIC asserts that Wis. Stat. § 846.30 does not change the common law rule that a land contract vendee's equitable title automatically reverts to the land contract vendor at the end of the redemption period, so that in the present case equitable title and legal title were combined in the land contract vendors when the period of redemption expired on October 7, 1999. According to WAMIC, the final order merely "confirms" the reversion of title; the final order does not supplant the parties' substantive rights that exist at the expiration of the redemption period.
Conversely, the plaintiffs assert that under the common law and under Wis. Stat. § 846.30 a land contract vendee's equitable title reverts to the land contract vendor only upon entry of the final order.
Relevant to interpreting the final sentence of Wis. Stat. § 846.30 is the statute's impact on common law. WAMIC argues, as the court of appeals held, that because Wis. Stat. § 846.30 does not clearly indicate that the legislature intended to overrule or modify the common law, the statute does not alter the common law.
As the basis of its understanding of the common law, WAMIC relies on a passage in Exchange Corp. of Wisconsin v. Kuntz, a 1972 case. This court said in Exchange Corp.:
Normally, a decree in strict foreclosure, which at best is an unusual form of decree, finds a default on the part of the vendee, confirms absolute title in the vendor, and provides, subject to a condition subsequent, that the vendor may have to convey if the vendee pays the total purchase price within a given period of time.
he judgment . . . becomes final or absolute only upon the expiration of the period of redemption. Such a judgment may be considered as an interlocutory judgment which automatically becomes final upon the expiration of the period of redemption without any further motion or decree making it absolute. If the record is to reflect the fact the vendee did not redeem, an order may be entered finding the vendee did not meet the conditions; sometimes an affidavit of such fact is filed. But if the order is used, it would normally not confirm the title but merely reaffirm the legal title in the vendor.
In essence, the judgment, under Exchange Corp., is an interlocutory judgment that automatically becomes final on the expiration of the redemption period. That is, the parties need take no further action to affect title; failure of the vendee to redeem means the vendor has complete title.
The Exchange Corp. court also concluded that a circuit court could extend the period of redemption if the current period of redemption had not yet expired, but once the period expired, the period of redemption c
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