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Rule of law | Law homework help

The U.S. Legal System

 Case Hypothetical #1

Officer Brian Perkins was having a difficult Monday morning. For the past three hours, he was responsible for “serving process” in three (3) civil cases (As Chapter 3 indicates, service of process is the procedure by which courts present litigation documents to defendants. Those documents typically consist of a complaint, which specifies the factual and legal basis for the lawsuit and the relief the plaintiff seeks, and a summons, a court order that notifies the defendant of the lawsuit and explains how and when to respond to the complaint). For the first civil case, Merriwether v. Alstott, Officer Perkins attempted to serve the defendant Harry Alstott at his home, but no one appeared to be there. For the second civil case, Setliff v. Sanders, the person answering the door claimed the defendant, Marshall Sanders, did not live there, and that he did not even know who Marshall Sanders was. Leaving the premises, Officer Perkins surmised that the residential address indicated on the summons was incorrect. Either that, or the person who answered the door was lying.

For his third attempt at service of process that morning, in a lawsuit captioned Jackson v. Graves, Officer Perkins drove to the home of Laticia M. Graves at 721 Magnolia Street. Officer Perkins knocked on the door of the dilapidated house, and although no one answered the door, a second-story window opened almost immediately. A female in the house looked down from her second story vantage point and pointedly asked Officer Perkins, “What do you want?” Officer Perkins responded with a question, “Are you Laticia Graves,” to which the woman responded, “Yeah. What’s it to you?”

Officer Perkins asked the not-so-polite occupant to open the door, to which she responded, “I ain’t comin’ down there, and if you ain’t got a warrant, you ain’t comin’ in.” Frustrated, Officer Perkins replied, “Well, I have civil papers to serve you, ma’am, and if you won’t come down to get them, I’m going to put them in your mailbox.” The response was, “I ain’t comin’ to the door.”

Officer Perkins immediately proceeded to the mailbox, and put the complaint and summons in the matter of Jackson v. Graves in the box. The address on the mailbox indicated 721 Magnolia Street. In his notes, Officer Graves wrote that the defendant, Laticia Graves, had been served with process on Monday, September 13, 2010 at 11:47 a.m. As he entered his patrol car, Officer Perkins looked backed at the second-story window from which he had received his impolite greeting. The woman had since closed the window, and was watching his every move.

Did Officer Perkins effectively serve process on the defendant, Laticia Graves? Why or why not?

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