Opinion ID: 865622
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: analysis

Text: ¶13. According to this Court: good cause is likely (but not always) to be found when the plaintiff’s failure to complete service in timely fashion is a result of the conduct of a third person, typically the process server, the defendant has evaded service of the process or engaged in misleading conduct, the plaintiff has acted diligently in trying to effect service or there are understandable mitigating circumstances, or the plaintiff is proceeding pro se or in forma pauperis. Holmes v. Coast Transit Auth., 815 So. 2d 1183, 1186 (Miss. 2002) (quoting 4B Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1137, at 342 (3d ed. 2000)) (emphasis added). Furthermore: [a] trial court’s finding of fact on the existence of good cause for the delay in service of process has been deemed “a discretionary ruling . . . and entitled to deferential review” on appeal. Rains v. Gardner, 731 So. 2d 1192, 1197-98 (Miss. 1999). When reviewing fact-based findings, we will only examine “whether the trial court abused its discretion and whether there was substantial evidence supporting the determination.” Id. at 1197. Holmes, 815 So. 2d at 1185 (emphasis added). ¶14. In the case sub judice, Oswald issued process for Jenkins contemporaneously with the filing of her complaint on July 18, 2002. On August 3, 2002, Oswald’s initial alias summons for Jenkins was filed. Oswald’s testimony from the hearing recounts her subsequent 6 laborious efforts to locate and serve process upon Jenkins. During this period, Oswald testified that: [t]here was no point in giving an alias summons without a valid address, and I could never obtain a valid address. There was nothing in the phone book. There was nothing under his name. I checked the Secretary of State site. He was not connected with any valid business as a CEO that . . . I could find at that point in time. I found nothing. After seeing Jenkins on television “promoting a new company that had to do with modular housing in reaction to Katrina[,]” however, Oswald testified that she “immediately contacted the Secretary of State . . . .” The second alias summons of November 28, 2006, was filed forthwith. ¶15. In denying Jenkins’s “MRCP 12(b) Motion to Quash Process and Dismiss,” the chancellor provided a detailed explanation for her ruling. That learned analysis reflects a clear comprehension of the applicable law and the appropriate exercise of discretion in deeming the evidence presented by Oswald to be credible and substantial. See ¶ 11 supra. ¶16. In deferentially reviewing the chancellor’s ruling, this Court finds neither an absence of substantial evidence in support thereof or any other abuse of discretion. While the dissent pays lip service to the principle that “weight and credibility assessments given to testimony as evidence are for the chancellor sitting as trier of fact[,]” see Dissenting Opinion at ¶ 30, its subsequent evidentiary analysis and contrary application of the principle lacks the 7 required deference.5 Accordingly, this Court affirms the chancellor’s discretionary denial of Jenkins’s “Rule 12(b) Motion to Quash Process and Dismiss.”