COURT OF APPEALS DECISION DATED AND RELEASED JUNE 25, 1996 |
NOTICE |
A party may file with the
Supreme Court a petition to review an adverse decision by the Court of
Appeals. See § 808.10 and
Rule 809.62, Stats. |
This opinion is subject to
further editing. If published, the
official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. |
No. 95-3552
STATE
OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF
APPEALS
DISTRICT III
RICE LAKE WEIGHING
SYSTEMS, INC.
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
LABOR AND INDUSTRY
REVIEW COMMISSION and
TRAVIS J. HARRINGTON,
Defendants-Respondents.
APPEAL from an order of
the circuit court for Barron County:
EDWARD R. BRUNNER, Judge. Affirmed.
Before Cane, P.J.,
LaRocque and Myse, JJ.
PER
CURIAM. Rice Lake Weighing Systems, Inc., appeals a trial
court order that dismissed its complaint for judicial review of a worker's
compensation decision of the Labor and Industry Review Commission. The trial court concluded that it lacked
jurisdiction under § 102.23(1)(b), Stats.;
Rice Lake had failed to serve an authenticated copy of its summons on the
parties within thirty days of LIRC's decision.
Section 102.23(1)(b) requires service of an authenticated copy of
the summons. On appeal, Rice Lake
Weighing claims that its service of an unauthenticated copy was a technical,
nonjurisdictional defect.
We reject Rice Lake
Weighing's argument. The trial court
correctly based its decision on American Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. Royal
Ins. Co., 167 Wis.2d 524, 481 N.W.2d 629 (1992). The American Family court held
that the summons' authentication was an essential element of personal
jurisdiction for a lawsuit commenced under § 801.02(1), Stats.
See American Family, 167 Wis.2d at 535, 481 N.W.2d
at 633. We agree with the trial court
that the same rationale should apply to the service of a summons in a § 102.23
worker's compensation review proceeding; we do not believe the legislature
intended the authentication requirement to have different consequences in
different statutes. Like the American
Family litigant, Rice Lake Weighing's failure to have the summons
authenticated deprived the trial court of personal jurisdiction. As a result, the trial court correctly
dismissed Rice Lake Weighing's complaint.
By the Court.—Order
affirmed.
This opinion will not be
published. See Rule 809.23(1)(b)5, Stats.