State Supreme Court issues pair of rulings favoring businesses

The state Supreme Court on Friday issued a pair of split opinions that sided with major businesses.

In one, the court found that Countrywide Home Loans is not subject to the general jurisdiction of Wisconsin courts merely because it appointed a registered agent in the state. Countrywide is a New York corporation with headquarters in California.

Ambac Assurance Corp. had insured securities backed by Countrywide mortgages, and after the Great Recession, sued Countrywide claiming it had misrepresented the quality of many of its mortgages. Ambac is a Wisconsin corporation with its principal place of business in New York.

A Dane County judge granted Countrywide’s motion to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction, but the Court of Appeals reversed, noting that by designating a registered agent in Wisconsin to accept service of process, Countrywide consented to the jurisdiction of the state’s courts.

Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote for the majority that the case should be reconsidered by the Court of Appeals to see if there was enough connection between Countrywide’s activities in Wisconsin to make it subject to the Ambac suit.

In dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley noted that Countrywide has used state courts to foreclose on more than 100 Wisconsin homeowners.

“But now that the shoe is on the other foot, it contends that Wisconsin courts no longer have jurisdiction under that same chapter when lawsuits are filed against it,” she wrote, joined by Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

Justice Daniel Kelly did not participate in the case.

In a 4-3 opinion, the court said a former Walmart employee was not entitled to disability benefits after invasive surgery she only believed, in good faith, was necessary to treat a work-related injury.

The court reversed the Court of Appeals and sided with the Labor and Industry Review Commission, which had ruled against Tracie Flug. Kelly wrote the majority opinion.

Flug was a supervisor at a Chippewa Falls Walmart when she felt a sudden pain in her neck and arm while using a price scanner above her head in 2013.

Walmart’s insurer covered some of her treatments but said the back surgery she eventually received, and which left her partially disabled, was actually for her degenerative disc problem, not the soft-tissue injury she suffered on the job.

Dissenting opinions by Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley (joined by Abrahamson) faulted the LIRC for failing to establish a sound record on the issue of Flug’s good faith reliance on her doctor’s advice about the surgery, and would have it conduct a new hearing.