Lauterbach v. Brown

The only question on this appeal is whether the defendant breached the lease by his failure to dump the waste material along the marsh. In construing a contract the court should give effect to all parts of the instrument and an interpretation which gives a reasonable meaning to all provisions is to be preferred to one which leaves part of the language useless or inexplicable. A construction which renders meaningless a provision expressed in the contract or results in surplusage should be avoided if possible. Knuth v. Fidelity & Casualty Co. (1957), 275 Wis. 603, 83 N. W. (2d) 126; Bank of…