In all other cases, except as provided in § 15-5-7, 15-5-8, or 15-5-8.1, the action shall be tried in the county in which the defendant or defendants, or any of them, shall reside at the commencement of the action. However, if none of the defendants reside in the state, the action may be tried in any county which the plaintiff shall designate in his complaint, subject, however, to the power of the court to change the place of trial in the cases provided by statute. In the second event, the jurors' fees and mileage payments shall be paid by the parties in such proportions as the court may order. If the parties stipulate to a venue which is not specified in §§ 15-5-1 to 15-5-5, inclusive, the first sentence of this section, § 15-5-7, 15-5-8, or 15-5-8.1, the stipulation must be approved by a court order which also provides for the payment of jurors' fees and mileage payments by the parties.
S.D. Codified Laws § 15-5-6
Venue based on residence of defendant--Nonresident defendants--Payment of jurors' fees and mileage--Stipulation to venue
Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case Lustig v. Lustig (1997)
Most recently applied in Kolb v. Monroe (June 1998)
Source: SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 33.0304; SL 1976, ch 146; SL 1985, ch 158; SL 2016, ch 110, § 2.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.