Garnica-Melgoza v. Fortney

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT TACOMA CASE NO. 2:22-cv-00392-BHS-JRC Plaintiff, ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE RE v. PERSONAL SERVICE ADAM FORTNEY, et al., Defendants. This matter is before the Court on referral from the District Court and on defendant’s failure to return a service waiver. On April 1, 2022, this Court directed service of plaintiff’s complaint on defendants Adam Fortney, Evan Twedt, and Grant Kendall. See Dkt. 7. The Court directed the Clerk to send defendants a waiver of service and informed defendants that if they failed to waive service within 30 days they would be personally served at their own expense. Id. at 2. Although defendants Fortney and Kendall have returned service waivers, see Dkts. 11, 12, defendant Twedt has not, and no attorney has entered an appearance on his behalf. The Court has no jurisdiction over defendant until he has been properly served under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4. Direct Mail Specialists, Inc. v. Eclat Computerized Techs., Inc., 840 F.2d 685, 688 (9th Cir. 1988). Under Local Civil Rule 4(c)(2), the Court may order that service be made by a United States marshal. However, in this district, the marshals do not attempt personal service upon a defendant unless mail service is unavailing.

As such, the Court ORDERS defendant Evan Twedt to show cause by June 10, 2022, why he should not be personally served at his own expense for failure to file a service waiver. Defendant may satisfy this show cause order by filing a waiver of service by that date. Dated this 19th day of May, 2022. A J. Richard Creatura Chief United States Magistrate Judge