Practice question
A server walks into the adult defendant’s office but hands the papers only to a secretary, without offering them to the present defendant or informing the defendant. The return calls this Section 5 personal service. No separate service mode’s conditions are established. Which is sound?
- Any delivery anywhere in the office necessarily is personal service on every employee.
- Presence in the same office alone does not establish the required in-person act on the defendant.
- A secretary is always the natural defendant personally.
- The return’s label conclusively supplies the missing acts.
- A server may omit all factual description because an office was entered.
Legal references
- 2019 Amendments to Civil Procedure, Rule 14, particularly Sections 1-5, 8, 13 and 23, as applicable to the stated issue: https://lawphil.net/courts/rules/am_19-10-20-sc_2019.html
- AM 19-10-20-SC, November 26, 2024, Rule 13-A Section 5, express preservation of Rule 14 for summons: https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/11/99055
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