Legal Question in Family Law in New York

Re: Serving a petition

There is no game of tag in serving summonses. As long as the server apprised you of the service and made you aware of it, it was not necessary for you to touch the summons or even view it afterwards in order for it to be good service. Under those circumstances a server can affix the summons to the door and still call it proper personal service. However in New York service on a Sunday (or Saturday for a Saturday sabbath observer) is invalid on its face, and on those grounds alone service was invalid.

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Re: Serving a petition

Technically, you are correct but you are just playing games. In the end you will be properly served. Why not just deal with the issue?

Daniel Clement

Re: Serving a petition

You are correct that service on Sundays is invalid by law.

With regard to personal service: if the process server affixed the petition to your door after you refused to accept it, then it would still be valid service even though you were never in physical contact with the petition.

If the petition was not affixed to your door but just dropped nearby, then the answer as to whether or not it is valid service is not clearcut.

However, if you were only served on Sunday, then that alone would invalidate and disqualify service.