Wood v. Weenig

In Wood v Weenig, 736 P.2d 1053 (Utah App, 1987), the Utah Court of Appeals, interpreting a Utah civil procedure rule providing that personal service could be effected on a person fourteen years or older by "delivering a copy thereof to him personally, or by leaving said copy in his usual place of abode with some person of suitable age and discretion there residing," found valid personal service when the deputy constable left the papers on the porch after the defendant's daughter refused to accept them. In affirming the lower court's refusal to set aside a default judgment, the Utah Court of Appeals held: We strongly believe that personal service should not become a "degrading game of wiles and tricks" nor should a defendant be able to defeat service simply by refusing to accept the papers or instructing others, suitable under the rules of civil procedure, also to reject service. [Id. at 1055.]