AELE LAW LIBRARY OF CASE SUMMARIES:
Civil Liability
of Law Enforcement Agencies & Personnel


     Back to list of subjects             Back to Legal Publications Menu

Defenses: Service of Summons

     Woman's personal injury lawsuit against state police officer seeking damages after she was struck by fireworks was properly dismissed on the basis of her failure to serve the officer with a summons in the case or make a good faith effort to serve him. Miller v. Klink, 871 A.2d 331 (Pa. Cmwlth 2005). [N/R]
     Plaintiff arrestee, serving as his own lawyer, showed sufficient good cause grounds for extension of time for the service of a summons on the arresting officer when process server could not obtain officer's home address, attempted to serve the officer at work several times, and was always told that the officer was not on duty, and eventually left the summons with another officer on duty who represented that he was authorized to accept service of process for the police department. Officer's motion to dismiss for failure to serve summons was therefore denied. Elkins v. Broome, 213 F.R.D. 273 (M.D. N.C. 2003). [N/R]
     The dismissal of an arrestee's federal civil rights lawsuit against arresting officers for failure to achieve service of process was an abuse of discretion when the trial court did not rule on whether the arrestee showed good cause for delay and the ruling did not indicate that the trial court knew it had could, in its discretion, grant an extension of time to the plaintiff. Hurst v. Names Unknown, #02-1440, 42 Fed. Appx. 895 (7th Cir. 2002). [N/R]
       322:150 Plaintiff's arrest on pending felony charges, along with incarceration for a period of time, showed "good cause" for failure to serve defendants or else showed, together with other circumstances, appropriate reasons for granting an extension. Matasareanu v. Williams, 183 F.R.D. 242 (C.D. Cal. 1998).
     {N/R} Attempted amendment of "John Doe" complaints against police officers to add officers' actual names did not "relate back" to the date of original filing of the federal civil rights lawsuit; plaintiff did not make a "mistake" in trying to identify the correct defendant, but instead was simply unable to identify these defendants at all. Jacobsen v. Osborne, 97-30098, 133 F.3d 315 (5th Cir. 1998).
     Federal trial court did not have to rule on sufficiency of service that occurred prior to removal of case from state to federal court when only claims left were state law claims; state law claims were properly simply remanded back to state court Lee v. City of Beaumont, 12 F.3d 933 (9th Cir. 1993).
     Federal civil rights claims against individual law enforcement agents were properly dismissed when plaintiffs failed to serve them personally with a summons and complaint; service of papers on agency which employed agents was insufficient Despain v. Salt Lake Area Metro Gang Unit, 13 F.3d 1436 (10th Cir. 1994).

Back to list of subjects             Back to Legal Publications Menu