Board of Trustees for the Laborers Health & Welfare Trust Fund for Northern…
Board of Trustees for the Laborers Health & Welfare Trust Fund for Northern California v. P & J Utility Company
- Donna Ryu
- 3:21-cv-01075
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 4
In Board of Trustees v. P & J Utility, Judge Ryu allowed service through California’s Secretary of State and denied default judgment without prejudice.
The plaintiffs may serve P&J Utility Company through the California Secretary of State. The plaintiffs’ pending motion for default judgment was denied without prejudice and may be resubmitted after service is completed.
What happened
In Board of Trustees for the Laborers Health & Welfare Trust Fund for Northern California v. P & J Utility Company, the plaintiffs asked to serve P&J Utility Company by hand delivery to the California Secretary of State after repeated unsuccessful attempts to serve the company and its officers.
The court found that the plaintiffs had made diligent efforts to locate and serve P&J’s registered agent and other authorized officers. It therefore allowed service through the Secretary of State under federal and California law.
Chief Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu granted the service motion. She also denied the pending motion for default judgment without prejudice, allowing the plaintiffs to submit it again after service was completed.
The detailed version
- Board of Trustees for the Laborers Health & Welfare Trust Fund for Northern… · No. 3:21-cv-01075
- Donna Ryu
- July 17, 2023
Background
The plaintiffs are trustees of several Laborers health, vacation-holiday, pension, and training and retraining trust funds. They moved for an order allowing them to serve P&J Utility Company by hand delivery to the California Secretary of State.
The plaintiffs described multiple unsuccessful efforts to serve P&J, its registered agent, and its officers. Their process server tried to serve Daniel J. Miller at a registered address and later learned that he had died. The process server also made repeated attempts to serve Gregory C. Miller, whom the California Secretary of State website listed as P&J’s secretary and chief financial officer. Additional searches and attempts to locate other officers did not produce addresses or contact information. Certified mailings to two addresses were returned without forwarding addresses.
Legal standard and analysis
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(e)(1) permits service in a manner authorized by the law of the state where the federal court is located. California law allows a court to authorize service on the Secretary of State when a domestic corporation’s designated agent cannot be served with reasonable diligence. California law also identifies corporate officers and other authorized individuals who may receive service.
The court concluded that the plaintiffs had been diligent. They tried to serve P&J’s registered agent, who appeared still to be listed as the company’s chief executive officer and registered agent even though he was deceased. They also made multiple attempts to serve other authorized individuals and searched for addresses or contact information for other corporate officers.
Disposition
Chief Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu granted the plaintiffs’ motion to allow service on P&J through the California Secretary of State. For case-administration reasons, the court denied the pending motion for default judgment without prejudice to the plaintiffs’ ability to resubmit it after service on P&J had been completed.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.