Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

621 N.E.2d 1102

LaPalme v. Romero

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided October 20, 1993

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1993-10-20

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“(1) sending a copy of the summons and complaint by registered or certified mail or other public means by which a written acknowledgment of receipt may be requested and obtained to his residence, place of business or employment with return receipt requested and returned showing receipt of the letter; or (2) delivering a copy of the summons and complaint to him personally; or (3) leaving a copy of the summons and complaint at his dwelling house or usual place of abode; or (4) serving his agent as provided by rule, statute or valid agreement.”

quoted by 3 later decisions, including 886 F. Supp. 1460 - Robinson v. Turner, Mills v. Coil

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1993-10-20

How this case has been cited

Cited by 35 later decisions — most recently September 2016 · most notably Swaim v. Moltan Co. (1996), Stidham v. Whelchel (1998)

8 federal appellate · 24 state decisions

160199320002010decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

GIVAN, Justice,

¶1dissenting.

¶2I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion in this case in thcir holding that service upon LaPalme was not adequate. The majority cites a commentary which was made at the time of the adoption of Ind.Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 4.1 and states that the Court at the time of adoption rejected Subsection 4, which is referred to in the commentary.

¶3The rejected portion undertook to describe persons who would be acceptable to receive service. There was no attempt to strike out or qualify TR. 4.1(A)(1), which reads as follows:

"[SJending a copy of the summons and complaint by registered or certified mail or other public means by which a written acknowledgment of receipt may be requested and obtained to his residence, place of business or employment with return receipt requested and returned showing receipt of the letter;"

¶4There is no question that under the rule had a letter comporting with the rule been sent to LaPalme's place of business, it would have been adequate. In this instance, the delivery to the place of business in fact was superior to a delivery by mail. *1107It was delivered by a process server whose return was made to the trial court concerning such delivery. I believe such service was in substantial compliance with the rule.

¶5The only issue which could favor La-Palme was not dealt with by the majority, that is, LaPalme's inadequate affidavit in which he stated at the time of the service he no longer worked for Danaca Transport Ltee. However, because of its inadequacy, the affidavit was not accepted by the trial court. In addition, there is actually no claim by LaPalme that he had no knowledge of the pending lawsuit.

¶6I would deny transfer in this case.

SHEPARD, C.J., concurs.
/621/ne2d/1102 · .json · Public domain