PROOF AND HEARSAY

Wisconsin Supreme Court tees up golf pros' lawsuit against the City of Madison

Bruce Vielmetti
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Four longtime former golf pros at Madison's public courses can sue the city over how they lost their jobs, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

"They were robbed of their businesses unfairly, of their opportunity to make money," said the pros' attorney, Cathleen Dettmann, and now they'll seek damages that could reach into the millions of dollars.

The 5-2 decision reversed a Court of Appeals ruling and found that the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law, which governs certain business relationships, applied to the city. It was the first decision in the nation finding such laws cover municipalities.

Monona Golf Course

The plaintiffs are Thomas Benson, Mark Rechlicz, Robert Muranyi and William Scheer. They had overseen operations at Madison's four municipal courses — Yahara Hills, Monona, Glenway and Odana Hills — until 2012 when the city decided it would not renew their agreements. The pros sued, but a circuit judge said the city was not a dealership under the law and dismissed the case. The appellate court affirmed that decision.

While Madison crews maintained the golf courses' grounds, the pros ran all the other operations, from collecting greens fees to offering lessons to selling concessions, and kept most of the proceeds, save for a percentage paid back to the city from club and cart rentals and restaurant sales. Greens fees and locker fees belonged to the city, but the city also paid the pros a small base retainer.

The pros hired and managed their own staff, and also paid $1,000 to $3,000 a year into a fund matched by the city that paid for marketing the city courses.

In 2012, toward the end of the existing five-year agreements, the city told the pros the arrangement was "unsustainable" and sought new bids. But in October that year, the mayor recommended "internalizing clubhouse operations."  The pros sued, claiming they were not given proper notice of the nonrenewal decision.

The city argued the pros had notice from an August meeting and their eventual lawsuit in 2014 was too late.

Writing for the majority, Justice Annette Ziegler said the Fair Dealership Law includes corporations in its definition of who can grant dealerships, and that Madison is a municipal corporation. Further, the law exempts certain businesses, like insurance, but does not mention cities in that section.

"We cannot conclude that the possibility that the WFDL might apply to cities is so far-fetched as to have escaped (the Legislature's) consideration," she wrote.

Justice Shirley Abrahamson dissented, saying no case law in Wisconsin, or other states with similar dealership laws, held that municipalities were covered as grantors of dealerships. She said the court's ruling will have "widespread ramifications" to municipalities and their diverse contracts.  Justice Ann Bradley joined the dissent.

Dettman, the pros' attorney, said the pros' relationship with the city was more than a simple vendor's.

"The city dictated all sorts of things the pros had to do, and required them to spend their own money."  The city and the pros shared the revenue and marketing and had a common goal, she said, the "community of interest" addressed by the Fair Dealership Law.

Some of her clients, who range in age from their 50s to 70s, now work part time at other courses. She estimated their collective damages from the city could reach seven figures.

"I think this is going to have a huge impact for municipalities around the state," Madison City Attorney Michael May said. "We’re going to have to start looking at every single contract we have to make sure we’re not falling under the Fair Dealership Law."

May said the city can still contest the issue of whether it properly terminated the golf pro contracts under the law when the case returns to Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess in about 30 days.