No. 2-601 / 01-2033Court of Appeals of Iowa.
Filed November 25, 2002
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Story County, Gary L. McMinimee, Judge.
John Allen appeals the district court’s dismissal of his tort action against defendants for delay in service. AFFIRMED.
Alfredo Parrish and Tammy Westhoff or Parrish, Kruidenier, Moss, Dunn, Montgomery, Boles Gribble, L.L.P., Des Moines, for appellant.
Sharon Soorholtz Greer of Cartwright, Druker Ryden, Marshalltown, for appellee.
Considered by Huitink, P.J., and Zimmer and Miller, JJ.
HUITINK, P.J.
John Allen appeals the district court’s dismissal of his tort action against defendants Jason Sjulin, and John and Marjorie Sjulin, for delay in service, pursuant to Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 1.302(6). He claims the district court erred in finding there was not good cause for the delay in serving Jason Sjulin with notice of the case.[1] The district court found:
The Plaintiff, in this Court’s view, has not established good cause for the delay in service, but rather has offered only evidence of half-hearted attempts at service. By the end of January, Plaintiff’s counsel knew that Jason Sjulin was not at the address on the accident report and that he did not know where Jason could be served. Nevertheless, he waited more than two weeks before he requested the Story County Sheriff to serve Jason. Finally, Plaintiff’s counsel made no effort to check on the status of service during the 90 days following the filing of the petition, even though Plaintiff’s counsel knew that he had been unable to provide the Story County Sheriff with a reliable address for service and had not been notified by [the] sheriff that service had been completed.
Here, the parties were involved in an automobile accident in January 1999. The action was filed in January 2001, and Allen soon realized he did not know Sjulin’s address. As outlined by the district court, few attempts to locate Sjulin were made, however, until June 2001. Even after Sjulin was located on June 18, 2001, he was not served until August 10, 2001.
We find there is substantial evidence in the record to support the district court’s conclusion that Allen failed to show good cause for the delay of more than 200 days for service in this case. As the district court noted, “half-hearted attempts at service have generally been waived as insufficient to show good cause.” Meier v. Senecaut, 641 N.W.2d 532, 542 (Iowa 2002) (citations omitted). A meaningful attempt to locate or serve the defendant is required by our rules. Falada v. Trinity Indus., Inc., 642 N.W.2d 247, 250 (Iowa 2002).
We affirm the decision of the district court.
AFFIRMED.