City of Sun Prairie v. Davis

¶ 1. The City of Sun Prairie Municipal Court entered a default judgment against petitioner, William D. Davis (Davis), an Illinois resident, for his failure to comply with a municipal court order requiring Davis to personally appear at trial on a civil forfeiture action. The issue presented is whether the municipal court has inherent authority to enter such an order. Because we hold that a municipal court does not have inherent authority to order an out-of-state defendant to personally appear at a trial on a civil forfeiture action, we reverse the court of appeals' decision and remand the…