Garage spat between town, couple will be decided by trial

A dispute over a garage built in the Town of Saukville is headed for a two-day trial after an Ozaukee County judge on Monday refused to issue a summary judgment in the case, which stretches back four years.

In hopes of avoiding a trial, Town of Saukville Attorney Sara MacCarthy asked Judge Steven Cain, who inherited the case from former Judge Joseph Voiland, to issue the judgment. MacCarthy said that because the facts and arguments of the case are already known, a trial was unnecessary.

Cain rejected that argument, however, and ordered that the case proceed to trial as scheduled in January 2020.

The case stretches back to 2015 when Reed and Jeanne Horton said they received permission from the town Plan Commission to replace a garage at 3150 Highview Rd. that included a second-story apartment above the garage.

The original plan showed a “bonus room” over the garage that the Hortons said would be a work space for Jeanne.

When a town inspector showed up, however, the “bonus room” had morphed into a bathroom, kitchen and bedroom, making it a second dwelling on the property and violating town codes, in the opinion of the building inspector.

The Hortons were ordered to remove the improvements. When they didn’t, the town sued in July 2018.

The Hortons, who live in Spring Green and want to use the property as a family retreat, and their attorney have since argued that the garage is attached to the house by a sidewalk, which they said creates a “connecting foundation” and makes them essentially a single structure.

As such, the Hortons said, the improvements are not in violation of town codes.

A court-ordered mediation agreement that was reached last January collapsed when the Hortons failed to pay the town an agreed-upon $17,500 fine because, Reed Horton complained, the town didn’t inspect changes he had made to the property. The mediation agreement also required the Hortons to build a roof over the sidewalk.

If they lose the case, the Hortons could be fined $100 for every day they have been in violation, plus attorney fees.

At the time of the mediation, the town estimated the Hortons had accrued fines totaling $75,000 and $12,500 in town attorney fees, according to court documents.