Avalon Holdings Corporation v. Gentile

Background

The court stated that it had personal jurisdiction—the legal power to decide matters involving—a Guy Gentile and had entered judgment against him for $8,219,175 on March 20, 2024. Avalon then sought to enforce subpoenas issued after judgment requiring Gentile to produce documents and appear for oral testimony. Avalon reported that Gentile had done neither and that neither Gentile nor his attorney had contacted Avalon’s counsel about compliance.

At a July 23, 2024 hearing, Gentile’s attorney said he had been unable to communicate with Gentile for some time and could not explain Gentile’s absence. The attorney had sought permission to withdraw from representing Gentile in this court, but the court conditioned withdrawal on providing another way to serve papers. Because that condition was not met, the attorney remained counsel of record in this case. He continued to represent Gentile in his appeal.

Avalon initially requested a warrant for Gentile’s civil arrest. The court denied that request without prejudice and instructed Avalon to provide evidence of diligent efforts to notify Gentile before renewing it. On August 14, 2024, Avalon renewed its request and submitted affirmations describing efforts to locate Gentile. One affirmation described a social-media claim that Gentile had retired to Dubai. The court found Avalon’s efforts diligent and made in good faith, although unsuccessful in determining Gentile’s current address.

Ruling

The court granted Avalon’s request for alternative service of the motion papers. It ordered Avalon to publish a specified notice in The Gulf News, an English-language daily newspaper published from Dubai, three times during one seven-day period beginning within 30 days after the order was filed.

The notice was to state that applications were pending for a warrant for Gentile’s civil arrest and for alternative service based on his alleged failure to obey document and testimony subpoenas. It also stated filing deadlines for opposition to the alternative-service motion and to the civil-arrest request.

The court further ordered copies of the notice sent by first-class mail and email to Gentile at his last known address and email address, to Thomas J. Fleming as Gentile’s attorney of record in this case and on appeal, and to Adam Ford as an attorney of record for Gentile in another pending case. The court also directed service through Gentile’s listed accounts on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

The order expressly grants alternative service. Although the order describes the pending civil-arrest application and includes it in the published notice, the opinion does not separately state whether the renewed civil-arrest-warrant request was granted or denied.