AN ACT CONCERNING STATE MARSHALS, WITNESS FEES AND THE SERVICE OF PROCESS.

AN ACT CONCERNING STATE MARSHALS, WITNESS FEES AND THE SERVICE OF PROCESS.

This bill makes a number of changes regarding service of process and witness fees. It:

1. adds an additional means of serving process on a limited liability company;

2. limits the circumstances when an indifferent person (someone other than a marshal or other proper officer) can serve process;

3. (a) allows an officer of any precinct to serve the secretary of the state or Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) commissioner when service on that official is permitted by any law, rather than just under specific laws; (b) allows an officer of any precinct to serve the attorney general or insurance commissioner with any process permitted by law to be served on them; and (c) makes service on any of these state officials the start of service within the officer's precinct and the officer can then complete service outside of his or her precinct as allowed by law;

4. allows a state marshal of any precinct to serve anyone confined in a correctional institution or community correctional center in the state;

5. requires a lawsuit against a state marshal for neglect or default of office or duty to be brought within two years after the right of action accrues (other statutes provide general statutes of limitations such as two years for negligence and three years for an oral contract);

6. provides that a cause of action is not lost by missing a statute of limitations if the process to be served is personally delivered to a constable or other proper officer within the required time frame and the process is served within 30 days of delivery (see BACKGROUND)(§ 5);

7. requires a party other than the state who summons a witness to testify in any action or proceeding to pay the witness when he or she attends (§ 6); and

8. makes changes to the way the call of a special session is served on legislators when the secretary of the state has notice of the call served by a state marshal, constable, state police officer, or indifferent person.

The bill adds an additional means of serving process on a limited liability company.

Under current law, a proper officer or anyone empowered to make service can serve process on a limited liability company by (1) serving its statutory agent or (2) serving the secretary of the state's office and mailing a copy to the limited liability company's principal office, if the secretary's records show that there is no statutory agent or the agent cannot be found with reasonable diligence at the address in the records.

The bill also allows service on any manager or member vested with management of a limited liability company. Service can be made by leaving a copy with the person, at the member's usual place of abode in the state, or at the manager's usual place of abode in the state if the manager is a natural person.

By law, a state marshal, constable, other proper officer, or an indifferent person can serve process. Current law allows an indifferent person to serve process only when (1) more than one defendant is named in the process and the defendants reside in different counties or (2) for an attachment, a plaintiff makes an oath before the authority signing the writ that he or she is in danger of losing the debt or demand unless an indifferent person is deputed for immediate service. The bill eliminates the first provision and only allows an indifferent person to provide immediate service of an attachment.

A number of statutes requiring service of process for particular purposes allow service by an indifferent person as well as other proper officers (such as serving subpoenas and certain environmental protection orders). The bill's change appears to limit the ability of an indifferent person to serve process under those provisions as well.

By law, unchanged by the bill, an indifferent person is authorized to serve a copy of the complaint in a probate appeal, regardless of the general provisions on when an indifferent person can serve process (CGS § 45a-186(b)).

Generally, the law allows state marshals and other proper officers to serve process in their precincts (a state marshal's precinct is the county for which he or she is appointed). But they may serve process outside of their precincts in certain circumstances, such as when an action involves more than one defendant and the officer begins by serving process on a defendant who resides within his or her precinct.

The law allows an officer of any precinct to serve process on the secretary of the state or DMV commissioner when those officials can be served on behalf of a:

1. voluntary association;

2. nonresident individual, foreign partnership, foreign voluntary association, or executor or administrator for one of them under certain circumstances that allow the courts to exercise jurisdiction;

3. nonresident in an action for negligent operation of motor vehicle; or

4. motor vehicle operator or owner in an action for negligently operating a motor vehicle if the person cannot be found after making diligent effort.

The bill allows an officer of any precinct to serve the secretary or DMV commissioner as permitted by any other law as well. It also allows an officer of any precinct to serve any process permitted by law to be served on the attorney general or insurance commissioner.

The bill makes service on one of these officials the start of service within the officer's precinct and the officer can then complete service outside his or her precinct as allowed by law.

The bill requires a lawsuit against a state marshal for neglect or default of his or her office or duty to be brought within two years after the right of action accrues. Under current law, this applies to sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and constables. The bill repeals the provision for deputy sheriffs. The positions of sheriffs and deputy sheriffs were eliminated in 2000 and state marshals took over their service of process functions.

The law requires the secretary of the state to give notice of a special session of the General Assembly by (1) mailing a copy of the call of the session to each legislator between 10 and 15 days before the session convenes or (2) having a copy delivered to each member by a state marshal, constable, state police officer, or indifferent person at least 24 hours before it convenes. Similarly, for a reconvened session to consider acts vetoed by the governor, the call must be (1) mailed at least five days before the session convenes or (2) delivered to each legislator at least 24 hours before the session.

The bill allows a person making personal delivery of the call to leave a true copy of it at the legislator's usual place of abode at least 24 hours before the session convenes if he or she cannot deliver it personally. It also requires the person to file a return of service with the secretary endorsing the actions taken and indicating the way the legislator was served and the efforts made to deliver the call personally, if it was left at the legislator's abode. If the return indicates that the call was left at a legislator's abode, the secretary must immediately call or email the House speaker or Senate president pro tempore, whichever is appropriate, and that official must make reasonable efforts to give notice of the session to the legislator.

When the secretary has the call for a special session personally delivered, the bill prohibits the session from convening until the secretary certifies that she received a return of service for each legislator.

1. 50 cents per day for attending court and the same per-mile rate for travel to the place of trial as is paid to state employees for travel;

2. $ 100 plus mileage (taxable as part of costs) for police officers and firefighters summoned in a criminal or civil proceeding if they are not compensated by their employer for the time;

3. an extra $ 2 for each day that a material witness in a pending criminal proceeding is confined;

4. a reasonable fee determined by the court (taxable as costs) for practitioners of the healing arts, dentists, registered nurses, advanced practice nurses, licensed practical nurses, psychologists, and real estate appraisers who give expert testimony, including by deposition; and

5. a reasonable fee determined by the court and paid by a party who subpoenas a licensed public accountant to testify in any action or proceeding.

A Superior Court judge recently interpreted the statute that preserves lawsuits if the process is delivered to a state marshal within the required time frame to file the action. The judge noted that the statute was amended as part a large bill to reform the sheriffs system and it was one of many statutes amended to give state marshals, instead of sheriffs, the power to serve process. This particular statute was amended to replace the broader term “officer,” which would have included constables and other proper officers who are authorized to serve process, with “state marshal. ” The judge concluded that the amendment was not intended to exclude process served by constables and a proper interpretation of the statute allowed it to apply to process given to a constable (Abitz v. Fierer, 44 CLR 820 (January 15, 2008)).

HB 6707, reported favorably by the Judiciary Committee, contains the same provision on preserving lawsuits when process is delivered to a constable or other proper officer.