Wells El v. Navy Federal Credit Union

Opinion

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 9 ROY RASHAD WELLS EL, CASE NO. C23-1408-JCC 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 13 Defendant. 14

15 This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff’s second motion for default judgment. 16 (Dkt. No. 12). Having thoroughly considered the relevant record, the Court hereby DENIES the 17 motion for the reasons explained herein. 18 Plaintiff first moved for default judgment on October 10, 2023. (Dkt. No. 7.) In his 19 corresponding affidavit, Plaintiff stated he mailed copies of the summons and complaint to 20 Defendant Navy Federal Credit Union, a corporation based in Virginia, and that he seeks relief in 21 the amount of $75,000. (Dkt. No. 9.) The Court denied Plaintiff’s motion because, among other 22 things, “both the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Washington law generally require 23 personal service on a corporation’s authorized agent, and Plaintiff has cited no reason why 24 service by mail is proper in this case.” (Dkt. No. 11 at 2.) (emphasis added). The Court stated the 25 requirements for default judgment in that order, (see generally id.), and will not repeat them 26 here. 1 Plaintiff now renews his motion for default judgment but, again, fails to demonstrate 2 proper service. (Dkt. No. 12.) Instead, Plaintiff indicates he “filed the foregoing with the Clerk of 3 Court by mail and to the defendant’s attorney.” (Dkt. No. 12 at 2.) As the Court has already 4 explained, “Rule 4(h) ‘requires personal service on someone at the corporation, and service by 5 mail . . . is not sufficient.’” (Dkt. No. 11 at 2.) (quoting Atanda v. Norgren (IMI Precision 6 Eng’g), 2021 WL 2805322, slip op. at 2 (W.D. Wash. 2021)) (emphasis added). Furthermore, the 7 Federal Rules require that a summons and complaint be served by “[a]ny person who is at least 8 18 years old and not a party to the action.” Rosco v. Experian Info. Sols., 2018 WL 11512624, 9 slip op. at 1 (E.D. Wash. 2018) (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(c)(2)) (emphasis added). And here, 10 Plaintiff appears to be attempting to serve the summons and complaint himself (rather than 11 through a process server or qualified third party). (See Dkt. No. 12 at 2.) 12 For the foregoing reasons, the Court DENIES Plaintiff’s motion for default judgment, 13 again without prejudice (Dkt. No. 12). The Court will allow Plaintiff one final attempt at proper 14 service, before it orders Plaintiff to show cause why this case should not be dismissed for lack of 15 prosecution. 16 DATED this 9th day of November 2023. A 17 18 19 John C. Coughenour 20 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 21 22 23 24 25 26