Weiss v. City of Milwaukee

After Holly Weiss (plaintiff) filed for divorce from Osama Abughanim, Abughanim began making threatening phone calls and visits to Weiss. Weiss subsequently took a job with the City of Milwaukee (defendant) and moved to a new home. Abughanim did not know Weiss’s new address or telephone number after she moved. The city required Weiss to give her home address and telephone number to the city’s payroll department. Weiss asked the department to keep the information confidential because she had an abusive ex-husband, and she was told that the information would not be disclosed. However, when Abughanim contacted the city a few months later and pretended to be a bank representative seeking Weiss’s address and telephone number, the city gave Abughanim the information without verifying Abughanim’s story. Abughanim then began calling Weiss at work to taunt Weiss about knowing her contact information and threaten Weiss about killing her and her children. Weiss became very frightened, and she sued the city, seeking damages for negligent infliction of emotional distress based on the city’s disclosure of her information to Abughanim. The city moved for summary judgment, arguing that Weiss’s exclusive remedy against the city was a claim for workers’-compensation benefits. The trial court granted the city’s summary-judgment motion, and the appellate court affirmed. Weiss appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.