PROCESS SERVER’S AFFIDAVIT OF SERVICE WAS REBUTTED BY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO WARRANT A HEARING ON WHETHER DEFENDANT WAS SERVED WITH THE SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT IN THIS FORECLOSURE PROCEEDING (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined that the process server’s affidavit was rebutted by sufficient proof to warrant a hearing on whether defendant, David, was served with the summons and complaint in this foreclosure action:

A process server’s affidavit of service gives rise to a presumption of proper service” … . “Bare and unsubstantiated denials are insufficient to rebut the presumption of service” … . However, “[w]here a defendant submits a sworn denial of receipt of process containing specific facts to rebut the statements in the process server’s affidavit, the presumption of proper service is rebutted and an evidentiary hearing is required” … .

Here, an affidavit of service, in which the process server attested to having served David with copies of the summons and complaint by personal delivery to him at his residence at the subject property in Williston Park on April 16, 2014, at 8:08 p.m., constituted prima facie evidence of proper service on David … . However, in support of the motion, David submitted an affidavit of Patricia, who attested that David suffered a brain aneurysm in April 2008 and had resided in a nursing home in Glen Cove since July 2008 and, thus, could not have been personally served at the residence on April 16, 2014. These facts were supported by documents submitted with the affidavit, including minutes of a guardianship proceeding dated June 8, 2012, wherein the court noted that David resided in a nursing home in Glen Cove. Caliber Home Loans, Inc. v Silber, 2019 NY Slip Op 04907, Second Dept 6-19-19