Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

My Favorite Wisconsin Cases

Post author:John J. Kircher
Post published:February 8, 2009
Post category:Legal Education Tort Law Wisconsin Civil Litigation Wisconsin Supreme Court

Where does one start?! I attempt to bring Wisconsin law into my classes for several reasons. The “Diploma Privilege” permits our students to practice in this state without taking the Bar Exam. Wisconsin courts have been pacesetters as to matters considered in the subject areas in which I teach. I believe students should learn, as early as their first year with us, that is not improper for one to find fault with judicial and legislative reasoning, at times even in a humorous fashion, as long as due respect is shown.

The first of my favorites is considered in my Torts class. It is Quesenberry v. Milwaukee County, 106 Wis.2d 685, 317 N.W.2d 468 (1982). It arises in the discussion of the duties of owners and occupiers of land to those who come upon the property. It is referenced to show how, at times, state legislatures see fit to modify common law rules. The case dealt with a provision of the Wisconsin Statutes in effect at the time of an accident (then § 29.68) that barred recovery for injuries received while engaging in “recreational” activities on lands of another.

Favorite Wisconsin/Seventh Circuit Cases: A “Non-Patent, Patent” Case

Post author:Kali N. Murray
Post published:February 8, 2009
Post category:Intellectual Property Law

This is an unusual blog post for me in that for once I am playing it straight with Michael’s request of the month. Just one case will be discussed! This, however, is not through any intentional strategy on my part. To use a colloquial phrase “the pickings were slim” since the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit hears most patent-related matters. To say the choice was “slim,” however, does not mean there was no fertile ground, and so I am selecting County Materials Corp. v. Allan Block Corp., 502 F.3d 730 (7th Cir. 2007), as my “favorite case.”

In County Materials, the Seventh Circuit, among other items, analyzed whether County Materials (a Wisconsin corporation) could sustain a claim of “patent misuse” against Allan Block (a Minnesota corporation). The case is an interesting one because County Materials is a great example of what, in her opinion, Judge Diane Woods (awesomely) refers to as a “non-patent, patent case” that falls within the jurisdiction of the regional courts of appeals, rather than the Federal Circuit, because the dispute before the court was not one where federal patent law creates the cause of action or is necessary to resolve the circumstances of the case.

Seventh Circuit Week in Review: Cloak and Dagger

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:February 7, 2009
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Federal Criminal Law & Process Immigration Law Seventh Circuit

The Seventh Circuit had only one new opinion in a criminal case last week: United States v. Latchin (Nos. 07-4009 & 08-1085). Latchin emigrated from Iraq to the United States in the early 1990’s and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1998. However, documents seized by American forces in Baghdad in 2003 revealed that Latchin was in the employ of the Iraqi government. The documents indicated that Latchin had been sent to the U.S. as a sleeper agent for the Saddam Hussein regime. It is not clear whether he ever conducted any covert actitivities once inside the U.S., but, somewhat chillingly, he did manage to obtain a job at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. In any event, once his connections to Saddam were exposed, Latchin was prosecuted for procuring citizenship illegally by making false statements on his naturalization application in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1425(a). He was convicted and then appealed.

The legal issues on appeal were not nearly so colorful as the underlying facts. Most significantly, the court had to determine what it means to “procure” citizenship through a false statement.