holding that summons and complaint personally delivered to one co-defendant at defendants’ offices did not meet requirements of Rule 4 (j)(l)(a) which requires that a copy of the summons and complaint be personally served on each defendant or left at each defendant’s residence with persons of suitable age and discretion
How later courts described this case
- holding that summons and complaint personally delivered to one co-defendant at defendants’ offices did not meet requirements of Rule 4 (j)(l)(a) which requires that a copy of the summons and complaint be personally served on each defendant or left at each defendant’s residence with persons of suitable age and discretion
- while upholding the trial court’s dismissal of an action based on defective service of process, the court recognized that Harris v. Maready suggests a movement away from strict compliance with Rule 4(b) in cases involving defects in the form of the summons
Written by the judges who cited it.
Distinguished
Distinguished by Collier v. Bryant, 216 N.C. App. 419 (2011)
Plaintiffs contend that the policy reasons recognized in Shelton are inapplicable here.
The opinion
Judge Phillips
concurring.
I agree with all that is stated in the well-reasoned opinion of the majority except that defendants Fairley, Monteith and Cobb were not served with process until they received copies of the alias and pluries summons issued on June 7, 1983. In my opinion, these defendants were duly served in July, 1982, when the summons for each of them was delivered to and accepted by their partner in the very offices where all of them practiced law together. The only purpose of the rules concerning the modes of serving process is to guarantee that defendants are notified in *15 some appropriate way of lawsuits filed against them. Since a defendant is duly served when a summons is left with some “discreet” adolescent at his house, it is inconceivable to me that he is not also served when the summons is delivered to his law partner at their place of business. When the purposes of the statute have been accomplished, as certainly was the case with these three defendants, reality, rather than technical wording, should control.