Milwaukee County v. Schmidt

Milwaukee county, plaintiff-appellant, commenced litigation to recover certain moneys from the state of Wisconsin, through the director of the state department of public welfare (now Department of Health & Social Services). The plaintiff seeks to recover certain collection costs under sec. 46.10, Stats., which allocates liability for the maintenance of patients in specified institutions.

The trial court permitted the plaintiff to amend its pleadings. As we view these amended pleadings, two separate and distinct causes of action were presented to the trial court.

The first cause of action was…