High Court split down the middle; Justices disagreed about making Wisconsin company pay back $6.5 million
Wisconsin State Journal, July 8, 2009
By Judy Newmann
Attorneys for both sides say they are a bit surprised that the Wisconsin Supreme Court deadlocked on whether the former owners of a southwestern Wisconsin manufacturing company should be forced to pay back millions of dollars they paid themselves even as the business had trouble paying its bills.
In an announcement made Tuesday morning, the court split 3-3 on whether to uphold a Grant County Circuit Court jury's decision. The 2006 decision ordered Daniel Virnich and Jack Moores to pay back $6.5 million of the $9.7 million they were accused of skimming from Communications Products Corp., a stereo component factory in Lancaster, 80 miles west of Madison. They owned the company from 1986 to 2003, when it was ordered into receivership, which is similar to bankruptcy.
The case was sent back to an appeals court for review. Appeals judges had earlier sent the case to the justices for guidance.
"It's disappointing that we don't have a decision yet," said Don Schott, of the Quarles & Brady law firm in Madison, who represented Virnich and Moores. "We remain confident that ultimately, the court of appeals will decide the case in our favor. We think both the law and the facts are on our side."
Schott argued that Virnich and Moores had a "very successful" business and reinvested profits into the community, jobs and equipment.
"They paid themselves a portion of the profits, which was their right to do," Schott said.
Bob Kasieta, of Kasieta Legal Group in Madison, said the high court gave "no insight into which issues they split on."
WMC spent $4 million in the last two elections to help elect Ziegler and Gableman to 10-year terms on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, according to the political action group One Wisconsin Now.
Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and Patrick Crooks voted to affirm the circuit court ruling. Justices David Prosser, Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman voted to reverse the decision. Justice Pat Roggensack did not participate.
A political action group conducted a petition drive in January asking Ziegler and Gableman to remove themselves from the case because Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce submitted a friend of the court brief supporting Virnich and Moores.
WMC spent $4 million in the last two elections to help elect Ziegler and Gableman to 10-year terms on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, according to the political action group One Wisconsin Now.
Schott said there's no way to know, at this time, when the appeals court might act on the case.
