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