Case Update (11 June 2025): Cornejo v. Reyes; time to serve Defendant in Mexico extended for good cause shown
This case is a key example of the difficulties many encounter when trying to properly serve a party in another country. The Plaintiff here filed a lawsuit in Florida to quiet title on the property where she lived. The Defendant, her former spouse, resides in Mexico. The USA and Mexico are treaty partners under the Hague Service Convention. The Hague Service Convention must be used to serve the Defendant here. The Plaintiff sent off the paperwork to the Mexican Central Authority, but was met with delays. She received several notices that her failure to serve the Defendant may result in dismissal of the lawsuit she filed. She filed three sequential motions requesting an extension of the time to serve the Defendant. For one of the motions, she even requested and obtained a wet-ink signed court order directing the Mexican Foreign Ministry to complete service of the Defendant in Mexico. For her various motions, she provided affidavits and evidence that she had communicated with the Mexican foreign ministry, and even retained local counsel in Mexico. For the last of the three motions, she even provided a uber receipt for a trip she took herself to Mexico to try to resolve the issue, and emails between her and the Mexican Ministry. One of the email exhibits apparently showed that the ministry blocked the message from being received. Ultimately, after the third motion, the court dismissed the case for lack of service sua sponte, and the plaintiff filed a motion for rehearing. When that motion was denied, she appealed.
On appeal, the District Court of Appeal of Florida noted that trial courts have broad, but not absolute, discretion on whether to extend time to complete service. In this case, the Plaintiff showed good cause for extending the deadline, including affidavits outlining her trouble serving the foreign Defendant and her efforts to do so through the Mexican Foreign Ministry. Therefore, the court erred in dismissing her case.
