Spector v. Berman

In Spector v. Berman (119 AD2d 565 [2d Dept 1986]) the process server was denied entrance by the defendant, after telling him on an intercom that he had papers to serve. In Berman, the process server told defendant that he was going to leave the papers in a mail slot. Defendant told the process server that doing this is not good service and the Court will deny it. The Appellate Division affirmed the Nassau County Supreme Court, citing Bossuk v. Steinberg, at 566, and holding: "In this case, there were two doors and a number of flights of stairs between the process server and the defendant, but the principle is the same. The defendant refused to open the doors, although he conversed with the process server, who told him that he was putting the process through the mail slot. The defendant's conduct was of the affirmative evasive character condemned in McDonald v. Ames Supply Co., supra, and it is clear that he was engaged in a deliberate course of evasion intended to frustrate resolution of the legal dispute the plaintiff was attempting to initiate . . ."