By Charles Capouet and Jonathan Feldman

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals held that Wisconsin courts lacked personal jurisdiction over the Mississippi Department of Revenue so as to subject it to a lawsuit in the state. An individual taxpayer asserted that the Mississippi DOR had filed a fraudulent tax lien against him. The taxpayer moved from Mississippi to Wisconsin and sued the DOR in Wisconsin court for improperly attempting to collect on the tax lien. The court engaged in a due process analysis to determine whether a Wisconsin court would have personal jurisdiction over the DOR. The court held that the DOR did not have minimum contacts with Wisconsin when the only contacts asserted involved sending letters and making phone calls to the taxpayer at his Wisconsin residence in an attempt to collect on the alleged delinquent tax debt. Bernegger v. Thompson, No. 2015AP2168 (Wis. Ct. App. July 21, 2016).