NEWS - March 2007
Attorneys Katt and Malloy Victorious at Supreme Court
On March 23, 2007, Attorneys Bill Katt and Mark Malloy received a favorable ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Attorneys Katt and Malloy were the lead attorneys for Albertson's Inc., the primary respondent in the appellate action. The case involved a misprescription where it was undisputed that the prescription in question was written incorrectly, and Albertson's filled the prescription exactly as written. When the plaintiff failed to name an expert to support his claims against Albertson's, Attorneys Katt and Malloy brought a motion for summary judgment, which was granted. Seven months later, the co-defendant attempted to bring Albertson's back into the case via third party complaint, alleging the same negligence claim against Albertson's. The trial court dismissed the third-party complaint on the basis of issue preclusion, noting that the issue of Albertson's negligence had been litigated and determined in the original summary judgment motion. On appeal, the court of appeals certified the issue of whether a co-defendant, faced with another co-defendant's pending motion for summary judgment, was obligated to appear and opposed the co-defendant's summary judgment motion. The Supreme Court agreed with Attorney Katt's and Malloy's position, finding that the co-defendant needed to not only appear, but also substantively oppose the summary judgment motion, or else that party would be precluded from later bringing an action based under the same facts under the doctrine of issue preclusion. The case was an issue of first impression for the Supreme Court, and will outline the duties and responsibilities of defendants in multi-party suits for years to come.
