eNotes: Liability – October 2024 – Federal
October 01, 2024
SIGNIFICANT CASE SUMMARIES
Federal Case Summary
Papin v. Taylor
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
No. 23-2591
Decided: July 2, 2024
Plaintiff’s claims were dismissed because Plaintiff failed to make a good faith effort to timely effectuate service of original process.
Background
Plaintiff alleged personal injuries as a result of a March 16, 2021, motor vehicle accident with Defendant Taylor. Per Plaintiff, Defendant Taylor was acting within the scope of his employment with Cowan Equipment Leasing, LLC at the time of the accident. On or around November 17, 2022, the third-party claims administrator for Defendant Cowan inquired about settlement with Plaintiff’s counsel. On March 13, 2023, Plaintiff commenced an action by filing a Writ of Summons in the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Settlement discussions continued during April and May of 2023. Plaintiff filed a praecipe to reissue the writ of summons on April 13, 2023, May 12, 2023, and June 9, 2023. Also, Plaintiff filed his Complaint on June 9, 2023.
On May 23, 2023, the third-party claims administrator advised Plaintiff’s counsel that the statute of limitations expired on March 16, 2023, and that Defendant Cowan was never served with the suit. Plaintiff’s counsel advised that the Writ of Summons was filed tolling the statute of limitations, and he did not serve the Complaint because counsel wanted to continue with good faith settlement discussions. The third-party administrator maintained that service needs to be perfected within a certain number of days and that while they can continue with settlement discussions, Defendants were not “waiving defense.” Settlement was not reached, and Plaintiff’s counsel mailed the Complaint to the Defendants on June 23, 2023. Defendants subsequently removed the case to the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and thereafter filed a Motion to dismiss.
Holding
The Court held that Plaintiff did not make a good faith to timely serve Defendants with original process, as required by Lamp and its progeny. The Court noted that Plaintiff had ninety days to serve his Writ of Summons, which was filed on March 14, 2023, but Plaintiff did not attempt to mail his Complaint to the Defendants until June 23, 2023. The Court rejected Plaintiff’s argument that Pennsylvania takes a liberal approach to enforcing the service rules, stating that Plaintiff misconstrued the standard that he must meet, noting that Plaintiff must show a good faith effort to actually serve Defendants in compliance with the Pennsylvania Rules of Procedure, per Gussom v. Teagle, 247 A.3d 1046 (Pa. 2021). As a result, the Court concluded that Plaintiff failed to demonstrate a good faith effort to serve his action and failed to satisfy the statute of limitations, resulting in a dismissal of his action.
Questions about this case can be directed to Randy Burch at (610) 332-7025 or rburch@tthlaw.com.