(d) Waiver of Service; Duty to Save Costs of Service; Request to
Waive.

(1) A defendant who waives service of a summons does not thereby waive
any objection to the venue or to the jurisdiction of the court over
the person of the defendant.

(2) An individual, corporation, or association that is subject to
service under subdivision (e), (f), or (h) and that receives notice of
an action in the manner provided in this paragraph has a duty to avoid
unnecessary costs of serving the summons. To avoid costs, the
plaintiff may notify such a defendant of the commencement of the
action and request that the defendant waive service of a summons. The
notice and request

(A) shall be in writing and shall be addressed directly to the
defendant, if an individual, or else to an officer or managing or
general agent (or other agent authorized by appointment or law to
receive service of process) of a defendant subject to service under
subdivision (h);

(B) shall be dispatched through first-class mail or other reliable
means;

(C) shall be accompanied by a copy of the complaint and shall identify
the court in which it has been filed;

(D) shall inform the defendant, by means of a text prescribed in an
official form promulgated pursuant to Rule 84, of the consequences of
compliance and of a failure to comply with the request;

(E) shall set forth the date on which request is sent;

(F) shall allow the defendant a reasonable time to return the waiver,
which shall be at least 30 days from the date on which the request is
sent, or 60 days from that date if the defendant is addressed outside
any judicial district of the United States; and

(G) shall provide the defendant with an extra copy of the notice and
request, as well as a prepaid means of compliance in writing.

If a defendant located within the United States fails to comply with a
request for waiver made by a plaintiff located within the United
States, the court shall impose the costs subsequently incurred in
effecting service on the defendant unless good cause for the failure
be shown.

(3) A defendant that, before being served with process, timely returns
a waiver so requested is not required to serve an answer to the
complaint until 60 days after the date on which the request for waiver
of service was sent, or 90 days after that date if the defendant was
addressed outside any judicial district of the United States.

(4) When the plaintiff files a waiver of service with the court, the
action shall proceed, except as provided in paragraph (3), as if a
summons and complaint had been served at the time of filing the
waiver, and no proof of service shall be required.

(5) The costs to be imposed on a defendant under paragraph (2) for
failure to comply with a request to waive service of a summons shall
include the costs subsequently incurred in effecting service under
subdivision (e), (f), or (h), together with the costs, including a
reasonable attorney's fee, of any motion required to collect the costs
of service.

I recommend that the defendants to this action read and study
carefully Rule 4(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as set
forth above.

Basically the rule provides that the plaintiff may notify the
defendants of the commencement of the action by mail along with making
a request that they waive service of process. Defendants who agree to
waive service of process may file a waiver form with the court in
which case they get an additional 30 days to answer.

In the case of those who refuse of fail to file the waiver, the
plaintiff may be required to serve them personally or the court may
order the US Marshall to effect service of process but then the
defendants do not get the additional 30 days plus they are subject to
pay costs.

This is set forth as follows:

"If a defendant located within the United States fails to comply with
a request for waiver made by a plaintiff located within the United
States, the court shall impose the costs subsequently incurred in
effecting service on the defendant unless good cause for the failure
be shown."

In my very limited previous experience in federal cases no defendant
has failed to waive service of process, obviously because it is
pointless in the long run to do so. However, in this case is had
already happened twice.

All of defendants received my notice of commencement this action no
later than October 12, 2007. However, Bill Brock had the post office
send back the envelope marked in big letters "DELIVERY REFUSED RETURN
TO SENDER". I promptly hired a process server who served him
personally a few days later in his office. Brock now has 20 days to
answer, because he does not get the additional 30 days he would have
gotten had he waived service of process.

In addition, Bill Hall, Executive Director of the United States Chess
Federation, surprisingly had the envelope sent back marked "Return to
Sender". He must think that he will get away, but I assure you that
he will not.

Randy Bauer posted here that he had the envelope sent back as "junk
mail", but that was two weeks ago and I have not received it back.
Meanwhile, Randy Bauer has fled to Hawaii. Do not worry. My men will
catch him eventually, unless he voluntarily comes in first.

Nobody else has protested. I expect to start receiving responsive
pleadings by the end of this week.

Sam Sloan

On Oct 29, 5:33 pm, samsloan wrote:

In addition, Bill Hall, Executive Director of the United States Chess
Federation, surprisingly had the envelope sent back marked "Return to
Sender". He must think that he will get away, but I assure you that
he will not.

Randy Bauer posted here that he had the envelope sent back as "junk
mail", but that was two weeks ago and I have not received it back.
Meanwhile, Randy Bauer has fled to Hawaii. Do not worry. My men will
catch him eventually, unless he voluntarily comes in first.


I am hurt; nobody even bothered to ask me -- a leading expert
in finding missing persons on the beaches of Hawaii. Indeed, I
have spent years (in my dreams) combing those beaches,
carefully scanning for anything which looks suspicious. Mark
Twain and I used to do a lot of "case work" there, though I must
say that he was easily sidetracked. Not me; I would go from
beach towel to beach towel, interrogating bikini-clad women if
they have seen the person in question (here, RB). Do you really
believe your men can track down RB in the old-fashioned way,
as by following electronic-payment clues or going from hotel to
hotel and asking questions? Not likely. Randy Bauer is much
too smart for that sort of thing; remember: this is the guy who
was going to beat GM Evans in a chess match... .


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