Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
RE: VALIDITY OF SERVICE - I have just received responses to my discovery requests. Responding party's proof of service states that he mailed the responses on November 20. However the postmark and USPS tracking info show that he actually mailed the responses one day later, on November 21 at 6PM. The declaration in his affidavit of service says, "..service is presumed invalid if postage meter date is more than one day after the date of deposit." May I please ask, is service invalid in this case? November 20 was the deadline for serving timely responses. As responses were one day late, Is it worth claiming that any right to objections have been waived? Thank you very much.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Two points:
1. A postage meter is not the same thing as a postmark. A postage meter is a way to print postage on envelopes or parcels before they are mailed. Postmarks are applied by the USPS to items *after* they have been mailed. The mailing date and postmark date can be the same, but it's quite common for the postmark date to be later. That's why the rule you cite relies on the meter date instead.
2. Even if the postmark date was the one that mattered, your argument would still fail because November 21 was not "more than one day after" November 20.
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