Superior Court Affirms Dismissal of Case Due to Service of Process Issues

In the non-precedential case of Phillips v. Triple G Farms, Inc., No. 514 MDA 2019(Pa. Super. Oct. 22, 2019 Nichols, J., Dubow, J., Musmanno, J.) (Op. by Nichols, J.) (non-precedential), the court affirmed summary judgment in favor of the Defendant due to the Plaintiff’s failure to properly complete service of process. 

The court relied upon the line of cases following Lamp v. Heyman. 

According to the Opinion, the Plaintiff failed to serve the Defendant prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations. 

The court noted that Plaintiff’s counsel sent the Writ of Summons to the county Prothonotary for service but did not further affirmatively check on the status of service of the Writ for over six (6) months. The court found that this failure to ensure notice to the Defendant justified the dismissal of the case. 

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.

I send thanks to Attorney James M. Beck of the Philadelphia office of Reed Smith law firm for bringing this case to my attention.