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228 Kan. 481

618 P.2d 807

Bray v. Bayles

Supreme Court of Kansas

Decided November 1, 1980

Supreme Court of Kansas · decided 1980-11-01

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1980-11-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 36 later decisions — most recently December 2013 · most notably Lindenman v. Umscheid (1994), Grimmett v. Burke (1995)

4 district · 32 state decisions

1401980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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McFarland, J.:

¶1Concurring in part and dissenting in part. I concur with that portion of the majority opinion which reverses the district court and the Court of Appeals as to defendant Bayles.

¶2I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which affirms the trial court and the Court of Appeals as to defendant Sumner. Dr. Sumner is a practicing physician in the community of Fredonia, the county seat of Wilson County. Dr. Sumner was county coroner in this county of 12,000 people. The sheriff s office had served a number of subpoenas upon the doctor by leaving the same with his receptionist. The doctor had accepted such service and never objected to the manner of service. There is no question that the doctor actually received the summons herein.

¶3The facts before us are readily distinguishable from the cases cited by the Court of Appeals relative to service upon secretaries. In the case before us, service of process upon the doctor was relatively common. For his convenience and as a part of his office procedure his receptionist accepted all service of process. The sheriff and the doctor were acquainted. The rather informal arrangement for service of process upon the doctor was in accordance with their usual manner of doing business.

¶4I do not believe a person can set up and operate under a procedure, in technical violation of the service of process statute, *490and then cry “foul” when it is to his advantage to do so. Under the unique circumstances herein, I believe the service can and should be upheld on the ground of agency, waiver, or estoppel, as all three apply.

Herd, J., joins the foregoing concurring and dissenting opinion.
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