Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

My friend is being sued however he was never served. He got a letter from the plaintiff's attorney regarding legal fees for the suit so he called to ask what it was about. The process server claimed that after 3 attempts getting no response, on the 4th try he sub served a woman at my friend's residence who, conveniently enough, refused to give her name. The problem with this is that first, he lives on 5 acres and the entrance gate is kept locked at all times; second, that he has 2 Great Dane dogs that roam the property freely; 3rd, that he lives alone and has had no females to his house in years, and finally, he never received any summons in the mail either. When he told the attorney's office all of this, they sent him a copy of the summons "as a courtesy" and said they would allow him an additional 30 days from when they mailed it to him to respond before they filed for default. Is this considered a legal service? Case e-filed on 5-2-16, sub service claimed to occur on 6-6-16, the letter and copy of the summons were dated on 9-2-16. Should he do a regular answer to the summons or can he file a motion to quash based on improper or lack of service?


Asked on 11/03/16, 9:04 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

It is a waste of time filing a motion to quash service of summons unless a default has been entered and plaintiffs counsel refuses to set it aside. They will probably just respond by reserving the papers, or if they fight it and lose they will reserve you then, most likely right there in court at the motion hearing. And it is not a good use of the court's time; wasting judicial time is never a winning move. Once you have a copy of the pleadings and time to file an answer or other response there is no real benefit to procedural posturing. Just get a response on file and get on with the case.

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Answered on 11/04/16, 4:33 pm


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