Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

''Serving small claims petition to lady never there''

My father, deceased 3 months now, had sheriffs make several service attempts to a woman who owes him $900 for Expert Witness Fees on a construction case. She lives in a guard gated community, and may have other homes. He couldn't recall what she looked like, and whenever the server arrived, she was never there. How else can I follow up to file a small claims case against her - and serve her? My father did the work and his widow deserves the monies owed.

She is apparently independently wealthy and doesn't have a job location to locate her at, either. We have no idea what kind of car she drives to see if she'd leave the home, etc. Quite a bit of money has already been spent on servers. Do you have any suggestions on how to serve a ''mystery person'', of sorts?

Thank you-


Asked on 2/10/05, 12:02 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Roy Hoffman Law Offices of Roy A. Hoffman

Re: ''Serving small claims petition to lady never there''

If the defendant lives in a gate guarded community, and the gate guard refuses entry to the complex, your process server should be able to serve her by substituted service, by serving the guard at the gate. Code of Civil Procedure section 415.20; Bein v. Brechtel-Jochim Group, Inc. (1992) 6 Cal.App.4th 1387.

If the guard is allowing entry, and you still cannot effect service, you may want to think about hiring a "skip tracer" who will be able to get the information you need to find the defendant. As a last resort, you may need to file a motion for publication of service, although you will need to be able to prove you have diligently searched for the defendant without success before that motion will be granted.

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Answered on 2/10/05, 2:29 pm


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