Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

No, not to dismiss. At best you would get your default judgment vacated.

You need to file a motion to set aside default judgment, if that is what occurred, with all your declarations, evidence, etc. Do it right and immediately. .

Mr. Roach's and Mr. Nelson's answers presume that judgment has already been entered against you. They're probably right, but your question doesn't say so. If the case hasn't been heard yet, you can try to quash service. But doing so may not be worth the effort, since it will take time and energy and since the other side will be able to try again if you succeed.

You can also allow the judgment to be entered and then challenge it later by doing what the other lawyers have suggested. That might not work, though, and in the meantime the plaintiff will be able to enforce the judgment.

If there is a hearing coming up and you have not been given adequate time to prepare, your best bet may be to show up and tell the judge that you were not properly served and did not have adequate notice. If you tell the court you are making a special appearance and if all you do is argue that you were not served properly, then you will not submit to the court's jurisdiction.

You should bring your neighbor to court instead of relying on the affidavit. Affidavits are usually inadmissible hearsay. The plaintiff is entitled to cross-examine your neighbor about whether he was served. There is no way to cross-examine a piece of paper. Besides, there is a very good chance that the affidavit you prepared is defective and/or incomplete.

But even if the plaintiffs were telling the truth about what happened, I don't see how substituted service on a neighbor could be effective unless you had previously authorized him to accept legal papers for you. You might be able to get the service quashed on that basis alone. But as I said earlier, the plaintiff would then be allowed to serve you properly and go to court again.

If the court doesn't accept your claim abut the improper service, you can still ask it for more time. It might say no, though, if it believes you were properly served. So you should probably be ready to defend yourself at the scheduled hearing if you can't get more time.

I suggest consulting with a lawyer beforehand if you can. You can get some very useful guidance in a couple of hours.

Good luck.