Wisconsin Supreme Court Statistics, 1934-35

These tables are derived from information contained in 328 Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions that were turned up in a Nexis Uni search for decisions filed between September 1, 1934, and August 31, 1935.  The total of 328 decisions does not include various orders pertaining to petitions, motions, and disciplinary matters involving lawyers and judges.

Cases are omitted if they were decided during the previous term but appeared in the search results because motions for reconsideration were not rejected until 1934-35.  Such cases will be included in the tables for 1933-34.

When two or more cases were, in effect, consolidated—one was simply said to be ruled by the decision in the other—the cases are counted as only one: (1) Whyte v. Lindblom (216 Wis. 21), Whyte v. Lindblom (216 Wis. 27), and Whyte v. Lindblom (216 Wis. 28); (2) Pallange v. Liberty State Bank (216 Wis. 418) and Pallange v. First Wisconsin Nat’l Bank (216 Wis. 427); and (3) Good v. Starker (216 Wis. 253) and Good v. Blaschka (216 Wis. 260).

This appears to have been done as well with (1) Olson v. Rahr-Green Bay Brewing Corp. (218 Wis. 657) and Olson v. Rahr-Green Bay Brewing Corp. (218 Wis. 658); (2) Siefert v. Sires (218 Wis. 656) and Siefert v. Sires (218 Wis. 657); and (3) Zupan v. M. M. Schranz Roofing & Bldg. Supply Co. (216 Wis. 655) and Zupan v. M. M. Schranz Roofing & Bldg. Supply Co. (216 Wis. 656)—judgment affirmed in each, without explanation, in unanimous per curiam decisions. 

Justice Walter Owen (served 1918-34) died in Florida on April 15, 1934—that is, before the start of the 1934-35 term.  His replacement, Justice Theodore Lewis, was appointed on November 15, 1934, and died of pneumonia 20 days later, before hearing any cases.  Thus, he does not figure in the following tables.  His replacement, Justice Joseph Martin, began serving on January 1, 1935.  During the month of January 1935, the court filed 39 decisions, all on January 8, and I am assuming that Justice Martin did not participate in any of them.

The tables are available as a complete set and by individual topic in the subsets listed below.

Four-to-Three Decisions
Decisions Arranged by Vote Split
Frequency of Justices in the Majority
Distribution of Opinion Authorship
Frequency of Agreement Between Pairs of Justices

About Alan Ball

Alan Ball is a Professor of History at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI.

alan.ball@marquette.edu

SCOWstats offers numerical analysis of the voting by Wisconsin Supreme Court justices on diverse issues over the past 97 years.

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