What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida
I travel frequently (better than half the year) and for this reason maintain a UPS Store Mailbox to have mail forwarded to me on the road. Several months ago a creditor (with whom I dispute the bill) filed a lawsuit against me and the process server served an employee at the UPS Store. The employee accepted service and put the complaint in my box. When I called in from the road to check if I had mail to forward they told me about the complaint - which had been served 14 days earlier.
I thought it was odd they would serve a UPS Store so I called a friend of mine who did a bunch of Pro Se work himself and asked what he thought.
He said pursuant to Rule 1.140(b)(4) and (5) of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, the Plaintiff’s service of process was insufficient and invalid as attempting to serve a defendant in a lawsuit by serving the defendant’s mail drop or post office box is not proper service under Florida Law. He prepared a "Motion to Dismiss" on these ground and filed it on my behalf.
Nothing happened for over 5 months. I heard nothing about the lawsuit. The creditor kept sending me a bill for the amount due I was disputing but nothing about the lawsuit so I thought it was over and completely forgot about it.
Recently I found out that the Clerk entered a Default against me 30 days ago.
When I reviewed the court docket I found this:
No activity for 5 months.
Entry of Notice of Hearing (I had no idea about this)
A month later on the hearing date there was an entry for "Order Denying Motion to Dismiss"
2 weeks later there was another entry "Motion for Default" by Plaintiff.
And a few days after that was the entry "Default Entered by Clerk" as to Defendant.
I received absolutely no correspondence from anyone about this. Had I known it was ongoing - I would have fought it.
Did the "Motion to Dismiss" filed by my friend constitute my acceptance of service or my answer to the complaint or something?
I have since found out that it really should have been a Motion to Quash Service but anyway - now I have a default and the next thing is going to be the summary judgment.
What should I do - any ideas?
I travel frequently (better than half the year) and for this reason maintain a UPS Store Mailbox to have mail forwarded to me on the road. Several months ago a creditor (with whom I dispute the bill) filed a lawsuit against me and the process server served an employee at the UPS Store. The employee accepted service and put the complaint in my box. When I called in from the road to check if I had mail to forward they told me about the complaint - which had been served 14 days earlier.
I thought it was odd they would serve a UPS Store so I called a friend of mine who did a bunch of Pro Se work himself and asked what he thought.
He said pursuant to Rule 1.140(b)(4) and (5) of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, the Plaintiff’s service of process was insufficient and invalid as attempting to serve a defendant in a lawsuit by serving the defendant’s mail drop or post office box is not proper service under Florida Law. He prepared a "Motion to Dismiss" on these ground and filed it on my behalf.
Nothing happened for over 5 months. I heard nothing about the lawsuit. The creditor kept sending me a bill for the amount due I was disputing but nothing about the lawsuit so I thought it was over and completely forgot about it.
Recently I found out that the Clerk entered a Default against me 30 days ago.
When I reviewed the court docket I found this:
No activity for 5 months.
Entry of Notice of Hearing (I had no idea about this)
A month later on the hearing date there was an entry for "Order Denying Motion to Dismiss"
2 weeks later there was another entry "Motion for Default" by Plaintiff.
And a few days after that was the entry "Default Entered by Clerk" as to Defendant.
I received absolutely no correspondence from anyone about this. Had I known it was ongoing - I would have fought it.
Did the "Motion to Dismiss" filed by my friend constitute my acceptance of service or my answer to the complaint or something?
I have since found out that it really should have been a Motion to Quash Service but anyway - now I have a default and the next thing is going to be the summary judgment.
What should I do - any ideas?
