Amanda Craven v. JEK Property Management LLC

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedNovember 27, 2024
Docket2024AP000616
StatusUnpublished

This text of Amanda Craven v. JEK Property Management LLC (Amanda Craven v. JEK Property Management LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Amanda Craven v. JEK Property Management LLC, (Wis. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. November 27, 2024 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Samuel A. Christensen petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2024AP616 Cir. Ct. No. 2024CV337

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT IV

AMANDA CRAVEN,

PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,

V.

JEK PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC,

DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT.

APPEAL from an order of the circuit court for Dane County: FRANK D. REMINGTON, Judge. Affirmed.

Before Blanchard, Graham, and Taylor, JJ.

Per curiam opinions may not be cited in any court of this state as precedent

or authority, except for the limited purposes specified in WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(3).

¶1 PER CURIAM. Amanda Craven, pro se, appeals a circuit court order dismissing her civil complaint against JEK Property Management LLC (“the No. 2024AP616

LLC”).1 The court dismissed the action, in part, on the ground that there were fundamental defects in the summons that Craven apparently caused to be served on the LLC, which deprived the court of jurisdiction over this action, regardless of whether the LLC could show any prejudice resulting from the defects. We conclude that the court properly dismissed the action because, after the LLC challenged the court’s jurisdiction, Craven failed to show that she caused service on the LCC of a copy of a summons that both was authenticated and included a substantial amount of information required by statute. Accordingly we affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 On February 5, 2024, Craven filed in Dane County Circuit Court a signed, one-page document entitled “Official Summons for Civil Suit” (we will call this Summons One) and a signed three-page complaint naming the LLC as the defendant. The nature of the complaint and its claims are not pertinent to any issue in this appeal. The case was assigned circuit court case number 24CV337, and the deputy clerk of court stamped that number on the copies of Summons One and the complaint that appear in the record on appeal.

1 The LLC’s brief does not comply with WIS. STAT. RULE 809.19(8)(bm) (2021-22), which addresses the pagination of appellate briefs now that they are electronically filed in PDF format and electronically stamped with page numbers when they are accepted for efiling. See RULE 809.19(8)(bm) (when paginating briefs, parties should use “Arabic numerals with sequential numbering starting at ‘1’ on the cover”). The pagination requirements ensure that the numbers on each page of a brief “will match ... the page header applied by the eFiling system, avoiding the confusion of having two different page numbers” on each page of a brief. Supreme Court Note, 2021, WIS. STAT. RULE 809.19.

All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2021-22 version. We cite Wisconsin appellate court decisions addressing civil procedure statutes dating from several recent decades, but neither side has called our attention to changes in the relevant statutes that could matter to our analysis, and we are aware of none.

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¶3 On February 20, 2024, also in case 24CV337, Craven filed in the circuit court a one-page document, also entitled “Official Summons for Civil Suit” (we will call this Summons Two). But, unlike Summons One, the copy of Summons Two that appears in the record on appeal was not signed by Craven. Further, Summons Two does not bear an authentication stamp by the clerk of court stating the case number of the action, though it was drafted to include a caption that contains the correct case number.

¶4 On March 8, 2024, the LLC filed a motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant to WIS. STAT. § 802.06(2)(a)4., which identifies “[i]nsufficiency of summons or process” as potential grounds for a motion to dismiss. The LLC asserted that the LLC had been served by a sheriff’s deputy with unsigned versions of the Summons Two and the complaint, and it based its motion on multiple alleged defects in Summons Two and in service. Most pertinent to the basis of this decision, the LLC argued in part that neither the served copy of Summons Two nor the complaint, which it averred were attached to the motion to dismiss, had been authenticated by the clerk of the circuit court, contrary to WIS. STAT. § 801.02(1).2

2 WISCONSIN STAT. § 801.02(1) provides in its entirety:

A civil action in which a personal judgment is sought is commenced as to any defendant when a summons and a complaint naming the person as defendant are filed with the court, provided service of an authenticated copy of the summons and of the complaint is made upon the defendant under this chapter within 90 days after filing.

(Emphasis added.)

(continued)

3 No. 2024AP616

¶5 On March 27, 2024, the circuit court held a hearing on the LLC’s motion to dismiss. Craven appeared by videoconference, and the LLC was represented in court by counsel, who made a special appearance to contest jurisdiction. Details of the hearing are summarized in the discussion below.3

¶6 As memorialized in a follow-up written order, at the hearing the circuit court granted the motion to dismiss on the ground that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the LLC because the action was not properly commenced due to multiple defects in the summons and process. Craven appeals.

The LLC also asserted the following in its motion to dismiss: neither Summons Two nor the complaint served on the LLC had been signed by Craven, contrary to WIS. STAT. § 802.05(1); Summons Two stated that it was dated February 16, 2024, even though the case was initiated with a filing on February 5, 2024; and the complaint did not contain an electronic mail address, also contrary to § 802.05(1). 3 We now address one unusual set of documents in the record on appeal and explain why, in Craven’s favor, we rely on the documents despite their late submission to the circuit court. After Craven filed her notice of appeal, but before the record was transmitted to this court, Craven filed in the circuit court seven pages, consisting of an affidavit and various attached documents, with the first page entitled, “Affidavit to [S]upplement Court Record.” We call this “the late submission.” The record on appeal does not reflect that any action was taken by the circuit court regarding the late submission. For example, the court did not construe it to be a motion for reconsideration. Indeed, no separate motion for reconsideration was filed at any time. The late submission was not part of the circuit court record at the time the court heard arguments and granted LLC’s motion to dismiss, although the transcript of the March 27 hearing suggests that the late submission contains one or more documents that were referenced during the course of the hearing.

On appeal, both Craven and the LLC cite to the late submission, but neither comments on the fact that it was not filed with the circuit court or provided to the LLC at or before the hearing at which the court granted the LLC’s motion to dismiss. Under these circumstances, we deem the LLC to have forfeited any objection to our referring to the contents of the late submission in our discussion.

4 No. 2024AP616

DISCUSSION

¶7 We affirm the circuit court’s order because Craven, at a minimum, failed to prove to the circuit court that she caused service on the LCC of a copy of a summons that both was authenticated and contained a substantial amount of the information required by statute to be included in a summons.

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Bluebook (online)
Amanda Craven v. JEK Property Management LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amanda-craven-v-jek-property-management-llc-wisctapp-2024.