2019 Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 784. Quo warranto.
784.04 When action may be brought.

784.04 When action may be brought.

(1) An action may be brought by the attorney general in the name of the state, upon his or her own information or upon the complaint of any private party, against the parties offending in the following cases:

(a) When any person shall usurp, intrude into or unlawfully hold or exercise any public office, civil or military, or any franchise within this state, or any office in a corporation created by the authority of this state; or

(b) When any public officer, civil or military, shall have done or suffered an act which, by the provisions of law, shall work a forfeiture of office; or

(c) When any association or number of persons shall act, within this state, as a corporation without being duly incorporated.

(2) Such action may be brought in the name of the state by a private person on personal complaint when the attorney general refuses to act or when the office usurped pertains to a county, town, city, village, school district or technical college district.

History: 1971 c. 154; 1979 c. 32 s. 61; 1979 c. 176; Stats. 1979 s. 784.04; 1993 a. 399.

A competitive interest is sufficient to confer standing to sue in quo warranto. State ex rel. 1st Nat. Bank v. M & I Peoples Bank, 95 Wis. 2d 303, 290 N.W.2d 321 (1980).

Both a neighboring city and a landowner-taxpayer in a town had standing in a quo warranto challenge to the incorporation of a town. City of Waukesha v. Salbashian, 128 Wis. 2d 334, 382 N.W.2d 52 (1986).

A recount under s. 9.01 is the exclusive remedy for challenging mistakes in canvassing an election. Actions in quo warranto are precluded. Shroble v. Prusener, 185 Wis. 2d 103, 517 N.W.2d 169 (1994).