We missed this when it came out, but Judge Fallon issued an opinion in March that addressed whether a defendant could evade service of process by, he claims, not opening the door when the process server tried to serve him.
In Pelham v. Vbit Techs. Corp., C.A. No. 23-162-JLH-SRF (D. Del.), a securities action, the plaintiff filed a Return of Service from their process server stating that they had served one of the defendants by personally delivering the complaint to the defendant at home—but the defendant disagreed:
On March 17, 2023, Plaintiffs filed a Return of Service, of the original summons and complaint. (D.I. 6) The affidavit of the process server states that on March 7, 2023, he personally served Jin Gao at his residence. . . . Subsequently, on April 5, 2023, Gao's counsel emailed Pelham's counsel, who filed the Return of Service, informing counsel that Gao was not personally served. . . . Gao's counsel did not receive a response from Pelham's counsel.
Id., D.I. 70 at 13.
The defendant submitted what he claimed was doorbell camera video to rebut the claim that he was served—but the Court did not consider that video, because ...
