Rose v. Kenyon College

211 F. Supp. 2d 931, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19742, 2002 WL 1583615
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedMarch 29, 2002
DocketC2-00-1299, C2-00-1378
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 211 F. Supp. 2d 931 (Rose v. Kenyon College) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rose v. Kenyon College, 211 F. Supp. 2d 931, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19742, 2002 WL 1583615 (S.D. Ohio 2002).

Opinion

*932 OPINION AND ORDER

MARBLEY, District Judge.

On November 6, 2000, plaintiff Margaret E. Rose (“Rose”) filed suit (Case No. 00-1299) against Kenyon College (“Kenyon”), Ivan Isreal (“Isreal”), and five John Doe defendants based on an alleged sexual assault by Isreal occurring on Kenyon’s campus while Rose was a student there. On December 4, 2000, Isreal filed suit (Case No. 00-1378) against Rose, Kenyon, and Kenyon employees Doug Zipp (“Zipp”), Robert Oden (“Oden”), Don Omahan (“Omahan”), and one or more unspecified John Does (collectively “Kenyon Defendants”), advancing claims based on the allegation that he was falsely accused and improperly dismissed from Kenyon. The cases were consolidated on May 22, 2001. Rose has moved for reconsideration of this order (Case No. 00-1299 file doc. # 19), and both Rose and Kenyon have moved for dismissal of Isreal’s suit (Case No. 00-1299 file doc. # 25; Case No. 00-1378 file docs. # 7 and # 8). A number of motions related to discovery are also pending. All of these motions are now ripe for decision. For the following reasons, Rose’s motion for reconsideration will be denied, Rose’s motion to dismiss will be granted, and Kenyon’s motion to dismiss will be granted in part and denied in part.

I.

The Court turns first to Rose’s and Kenyon’s procedural arguments made in support of their motions to dismiss Isreal’s complaint. These arguments are premised on two related theories. First, Rose and Kenyon contend that they were never properly served with process as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 4 and that, as a result, the claims against them must be dismissed either because they have never been made *933 parties to that case, or because Fed. R.Civ.P. 4(m) mandates dismissal. Rose also contends in her motion for reconsideration that this shortcoming necessarily precluded consolidation of the two cases. The Court finds both contentions misplaced.

In response to Rose’s lawsuit, Isreal filed case No. 00-1378 in this Court on December 4, 2000, raising his own claims against Rose, Kenyon, and various Kenyon employees. Noting that Isreal appeared to have failed to serve Rose in compliance with Fed.R.Civ.P. 4, Magistrate Judge King issued a show cause order on April 18, 2001 requiring Isreal to show cause within eleven days why the action should not be dismissed. Isreal filed a response on May 1, 2001 detailing his efforts to obtain service on the defendants. After completing six summonses, he alleges that he was told that he could perfect service himself as long as someone else delivered the summons. He claims to have both mailed and hand delivered his complaint to Joel H. Mirman, Rose’s counsel, and Richard Lovering, the Kenyon Defendants’ counsel. He also attempted to serve Kenyon by leaving a copy of the summons with Jodi Pursel, a secretary in the President’s office. Isreal notes that although the opposing parties had introduced the' issue of deficiency of service, the potential for consolidation was raised during the April 17, 2001 pretrial conference in Case No. GO-1299, one day after the show cause order issued in 00-1378. Based on the decision of the Court to consolidate, the cases, he has made no further attempts at service of these parties. In the event that the Court should find the service requirement unsatisfied, Isreal requests additional time to perfect service on Rose and Kenyon.

Mirman, one of Rose’s attorneys, concedes that Isreal or his agent attempted to serve him with a copy of the complaint on December 5, 2000. Mirman, however, refused service, claiming that he was “not authorized to accept service on behalf of anyone.” Isreal’s Show Cause Motion, Ex. A at 1 (emphasis in original). Kenyon does not dispute that Lovering, one of its attorneys, also was served with a complaint and summons, but it argues that service was not properly effected because a copy of the summons and complaint was not delivered “to an officer, managing or general agent, or to any other agent authorized by appointment or by law to receive service of process” as required by Fed. R.Civ.P. 4(h). Kenyon further notes that “[n]o attempt at service was made on the duly appointed statutory agent for the college.” Kenyon Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Case No. 00-1378 file doc. # 7) at 12.

The Court recognizes Rose and Kenyon’s contention that, in general, actual knowledge of a lawsuit will not suffice to substitute for proper service of process,. LSJ Inv. Co., Inc. v. O.L.D., Inc., 167 F.3d 320, 322 (6th Cir.1999), and that actual appointment to receive process is generally necessary. Whisman v. Robbins, 712 F.Supp. 632 (S.D.Ohio.1988). It is uncontested, however, that Isreal’s claims “arise out of the same facts” as do Rose’s claims in the earlier-filed case. Kenyon Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss at 3. Accordingly, the claims Isreal raises in Case No. 00-1378 are properly considered compulsory counterclaims to Rose’s claims in Case No. 00-1299 under Fed.R.Civ.P. 13(a), and they would also be proper cross-claims against Kenyon. At least in the first filed case, all the relevant parties — Rose, Kenyon, and Isreal — are properly before the Court, and it may therefore decide all claims arising from the same facts and circumstances at issue. Amen v. City of Dearborn, 532 F.2d 554, 557 (6th Cir.1976). Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 13(f), the Court has discretion to allow a defendant to plead an *934 omitted counterclaim or defense at any time “when justice so -requires.” See Lemelson v. Synergistics Research Corp., 669 F.Supp. 642 (D.C.N.Y.1987). Following Fed.R.Civ.P. 1, which requires the Court to construe the applicable Rules of Procedure “to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action,” the Court chooses to grant Isreal leave to amend his answer to include the counterclaims and cross-claims advanced in the complaint he filed in Case No. C-2-00-1378. This approach - seems particularly warranted when some of the proposed claims are compulsory counterclaims. Since Rose and Kenyon have alternatively moved to dismiss Isreal’s claims on the merits; they are not prejudiced by this approach. It also moots both the defendants’ arguments concerning the timeliness of service of process and Isreal’s motion for an' extension of time to make service, and allows the Court to proceed directly to the substantive arguments advanced in support of dismissal.

H.

Before turning to that inquiry, the Court will resolve one additional procedural issue. Isreal has moved to have all of this Court’s orders “handed down ... during the summer months to present” vacated.

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Bluebook (online)
211 F. Supp. 2d 931, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19742, 2002 WL 1583615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rose-v-kenyon-college-ohsd-2002.