Steward v. Kuettel

Plaintiff filed suit against Defendant alleging that Defendant had published numerous defamatory statements about him on certain websites. Plaintiff later filed a motion for default judgment, contending that he was entitled to default judgment because he had successfully served Defendant by email and because the deadline to file an answer or otherwise had passed with no response filed by Defendant. The circuit court entered a default judgment in favor of Plaintiff. Defendant filed a motion to set aside default judgment, arguing that there was no proof that he had ever received service of process. The circuit court denied the motion. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the alternative service of process by email in this case was insufficient because it was not reasonably calculated to give actual notice to Defendant. View "Steward v. Kuettel" on Justia Law