Afram v. Balfour, MacLaine, Inc.

Because the trial judge erroneously assigned the burden of proof to the defendant, and in addition failed to make any findings of fact, our review of the order is made more difficult.

The defendant at the outset of the trial on the jurisdictional question objected to the fact that it had the burden, both of persuasion and going forward with the evidence, placed upon it. In effect, it became the task of the defendant to prove a negative — that there was no jurisdiction. It is error to require a defendant objecting to jurisdiction to show the nonapplicability of the Wisconsin long-arm statutes.…