Subject-matter Jurisdiction

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WI Court of Appeals – District III

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Troy R. Lasecki

Case No.: 2018AP2340-CR

Officials: Stark, P.J., Hruz and Seidl, JJ.

Focus: Subject-matter Jurisdiction

Troy Lasecki appeals a judgment convicting him of two misdemeanor counts of engaging in unfair trade practices and an order denying his motion for postconviction relief. A jury found Lasecki guilty of failing either to return the entire security deposits to two of his former tenants or to provide statements to those tenants explaining why he was authorized to withhold their respective security deposits. He raises multiple arguments on appeal: (1) the circuit court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the crimes of which Lasecki was convicted are “not known to law”; (2) if Lasecki’s conduct did constitute a crime, no ordinary person would have sufficient notice that his conduct was criminal; (3) the jury instructions in his case incorrectly stated the law regarding his charged crimes; and (4) the court impermissibly ordered restitution above the victims’ pecuniary losses.

We conclude the circuit court had subject matter jurisdiction over this case. We further conclude that an ordinary person, acting as a residential landlord, would have sufficient notice that it can be a criminal unfair trade practice for a landlord either to withhold amounts of a tenant’s security deposit not reasonably necessary to pay for items authorized by statute or to fail to provide a tenant with a security deposit withholdings statement if some or all of a security deposit is withheld. Accordingly, we affirm those parts of the postconviction order consistent with these conclusions. We agree with Lasecki, however, that the jury instructions in his case were erroneous because they did not correctly state the law. We also agree with Lasecki that the court erred by ordering restitution above the victims’ pecuniary losses. For these reasons, we reverse the judgment of conviction and reverse the postconviction order in part, and we remand for further proceedings consistent with our statutory analysis herein.

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