On May 4, 2010, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing a series of claims against the defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction under Wisconsin’s long-arm statute, Wis. Stat. § 801.05 and held that, as Attorney McBride had argued, personal jurisdiction over the corporation cannot be the sole basis for personal jurisdiction over an officer. Attorney McBride’s argument enabled the appellate court to differentiate between the business contacts of the corporation with Wisconsin and the lack of specific contacts within the state by the individual defendants, former officers of the corporation.
While the appellate court noted that the business contacts of the corporation in Wisconsin were sufficient to impose jurisdiction over the corporation, it agreed with Attorney McBride’s argument that the individual defendant’s work on behalf of the corporation, all performed outside Wisconsin, was not sufficient to constitute “substantial and not isolated activities within this state” sufficient to impose personal jurisdiction over the former officers. As a result, the court of appeals determined that the exercise of personal jurisdiction over the individual defendants was not permissible under the long-arm statute.
Attorney McBride is a former law clerk to Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jon P. Wilcox (ret.) and provides counsel to clients dealing with appellate issues in both state and federal court. A full copy of the opinion can be found here.
