In this chapter, the following words have the designated meanings:
801.03.Jurisdiction; definitions.
Ch. 801: Commencement of Action and Venue · Last amended 1983 · Last verified July 15, 2026
In one sentenceSection 801.03 defines defendant, person, and plaintiff for chapter 801, attributing to each party the acts of others they are legally responsible for or whose authority they granted.
Full Text of Section 801.03
(1) “Defendant” means the person named as defendant in a civil action, and where in this chapter acts of the defendant are referred to, the reference attributes to the defendant any person’s acts for which acts the defendant is legally responsible. In determining for jurisdiction purposes the defendant’s legal responsibility for the acts of another, the substantive liability of the defendant to the plaintiff is irrelevant.
(2) “Person” means any natural person, partnership, association, and body politic and corporate.
(3) “Plaintiff” means the person named as plaintiff in a civil action, and where in this chapter acts of the plaintiff are referred to, the reference attributes to the plaintiff the acts of an agent within the scope of the agent’s authority.
Plain-English Summary
Section 801.03 is a short definitions section, but it does real work because chapter 801’s jurisdiction rules turn on exactly what these words mean. A defendant is the person named as defendant in the case, and whenever the chapter talks about something the defendant did, that includes acts done by anyone the defendant is legally responsible for. The section is careful to separate this jurisdictional attribution from the merits: whether the defendant is legally liable to the plaintiff for those acts is a different question, irrelevant to figuring out whether the court has jurisdiction over the defendant in the first place.
A person, for purposes of the chapter, is defined broadly — it covers a natural person, a partnership, an association, and a body politic and corporate, so the jurisdictional and procedural rules that refer to a “person” aren’t limited to individuals.
The plaintiff gets the mirror-image treatment given to the defendant, though narrower: acts of the plaintiff include acts by the plaintiff’s agent, but only when that agent was acting within the scope of the agent’s authority. Because so much of the personal jurisdiction analysis in the sections that follow depends on what a party did or is responsible for, this section’s definitions quietly shape how those later provisions get applied.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who counts as the defendant under Wisconsin’s civil procedure rules?
Section 801.03 defines the defendant as the person named as defendant in the action, and it attributes to that defendant the acts of anyone else the defendant is legally responsible for, for purposes of the rules in this chapter.
Does it matter whether the defendant is legally liable for another person’s acts?
Not for jurisdiction purposes. Section 801.03 says that in determining the defendant’s legal responsibility for another’s acts for jurisdictional purposes, the defendant’s substantive liability to the plaintiff is irrelevant.
Does a partnership or corporation count as a person under this chapter?
Yes. Section 801.03 defines person to include a natural person, a partnership, an association, and a body politic and corporate, so entities as well as individuals fall within that term.
Are a plaintiff’s agent’s acts attributed to the plaintiff?
Only within the scope of the agent’s authority. Section 801.03 attributes to the plaintiff the acts of an agent acting within that authority, not acts the agent took outside it.
Why does chapter 801 need its own definitions of these terms?
Because the personal and in rem jurisdiction provisions that follow in chapter 801 repeatedly turn on what the defendant or plaintiff did or is responsible for, and section 801.03 fixes the meaning of those terms for the whole chapter.
Amendment History
History: Sup. Ct. Order, 67 Wis. 2d 585, 591 (1975); 1975 c. 218; 1983 a. 189.
Source & verification. Section text and official notes are
reproduced verbatim from the Wisconsin Statutes, published by the
Wisconsin Legislature (Legislative Reference Bureau). Last verified July 15, 2026.
· Official source
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