Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

The consequence is that the plaintiff has to serve the defendant correctly -- unless the statute of limitations has run in the interim.

I disagree with Mr. Hoffman. The plaintiff's statute of limitations stops running when he files the complaint. He has a statutory period of three years to serve a complaint, which would subject the case to dismissal. He is also subject to fast track rules that may get him sanctioned if he does not serve a defendant withint 60 days of filing the complaint, but those sanctions are supposed to be monetary, with a dismissal only after a failure to comply with earlier court orders.

There are two different types of motions to quash. If a motion to quash service was made because service is defective, the plaintiff will simply have to reserve the summons and complaint, correctly. But if the motion to quash was based on a lack of personal jurisdiction over the defendant, then that action is dismissed as to that defendant and that is the end of the matter as far as that case is concerned.