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671 So. 2d 818

Docket No. 96-2.

Telf Corp. v. Gomez

TELF CORPORATION, a Florida corporation, and Jesus Paredes, a/k/a Jesus Osvaldo Paredes, individually, Appellants, v. Ivon GOMEZ, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1996-04-03

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[A] process server's return of service on a defendant which is regular on its face is presumed to be valid absent clear and convincing evidence presented to the contrary.”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 867 So. 2d 603 - Thompson v. STATE, DEPT. OF REVENUE, 942 So. 2d 1045 - Cordova v. Jolcover

Relies on 548 So. 2d 1194 - Lazo v. Bill Swad Leasing Co. · FLORIDA NAT. BANK v. Halphen · 498 So. 2d 450 - Jefferson Bank & Trust v. Levy

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1996-04-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently September 2016

17 state decisions

80199620002010decided

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 →

¶1Jesus Huerta, South Miami, for appellants.

¶2Jose C. Bofill; David Pollack, Miami, for appellee.

¶3Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and GODERICH and GREEN, JJ.

¶4PER CURIAM.

¶5We affirm the order of the trial court denying appellants' respective motions to quash service of process. It has well been established that a process server's return of service on a defendant which is regular on its face is presumed to be valid absent clear and convincing evidence presented to the contrary. Florida Nat'l Bank v. Halphen,641 So.2d 495 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994); Lazo v. Bill Swad Leasing Co.,548 So.2d 1194 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989); Slomowitz v. Walker, *819 429 So.2d 797 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983); Brugh v. Savings & Profit Sharing Pension Fund of United Ins. Co. of Am.,211 So.2d 613 (Fla. 1st DCA 1968). Further, a defendant may not impeach the validity of the summons with a simple denial of service, but must present `clear and convincing evidence' to corroborate his denial. Halphen,641 So.2d at 496; Jefferson Bank & Trust v. Levy,498 So.2d 450 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986). Where as here, the individual appellant, who happens also to be the resident agent/officer/director/shareholder of the corporate appellant, sought to attack the service of process with uncorroborated affidavits that he did not reside at the address to which service was accepted and that the corporate appellant transacted no business at that address, we conclude that appellants have not sustained their high burden of demonstrating the invalidity of their service.

¶6Affirmed.

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