Baker v. Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (MAG+)
Filing
14
OPINION AND ORDER that: (1) Plaintiff Jeffery Baker's motion for extension of deadline of time to serve complaint 13 is granted. (2) Plaintiff Baker has until May 13, 2013, to serve his complaint. Signed by Honorable Judge Myron H. Thompson on 4/15/2013. (jg, )
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF ALABAMA, NORTHERN DIVISION
JEFFERY BAKER,
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
Plaintiff,
v.
SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT
CORPORATION,
Defendant.
CIVIL ACTION NO.
2:12cv1013-MHT
(WO)
OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiff Jeffery Baker seeks additional time to
serve defendant Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation with his
complaint.
For the reasons that follow, the court will
grant the extension.
Plaintiffs have 120 days after filing their complaint
to make service on a defendant.
Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m).
If the plaintiff does not serve the defendant by the
deadline and if the plaintiff shows good cause for his
failure, the court must extend the deadline.
Id.
Even
if the plaintiff does not establish good cause, the court
may, in its discretion, choose to extend the deadline.
Horenkamp v. Van Winkle and Co., Inc., 402 F.3d 1129,
1132 (11th Cir. 2005).
Because Baker filed his complaint on November 19,
2012, the deadline for serving Sikorsky was March 19,
2013.
On February 20, 2013, Baker sought to extend this
service deadline by 60 days.
As a ground for this first
extension, Baker explained that he filed the complaint
with the assistance of counsel who contracted with him
solely to draft the complaint.
Baker sought to retain
different counsel for the litigation and made several
unsuccessful attempts to do so before contracting with
current counsel on February 14, 2013.
He did not attempt
to serve the complaint before that time because he sought
the skill and expertise of counsel to perfect service.
The court granted the motion for an extension, but did
not extend the deadline for the 60 days Baker sought.
Instead, the court extended the deadline 35 days to April
23, 2013.
2
In this motion, Baker explains that he has already
sent the summons and complaint through first-class mail.
The certified-mail receipt from the United States Postal
Service shows that Baker mailed the summons and complaint
on April 3, 2013, and that it was accepted on April 4,
2013.
Baker has not yet received an acknowledgment of
receipt from Sikorsky.
In order to ensure that he will
be able to perfect service before the deadline expires,
Baker thus requests an extension of 30 days from the time
he filed his motion, which would result in a new deadline
of May 13, 2013.
As
First,
stated,
Sikorsky
the
court
should
will
grant
already
have
the
extension.
notice
of
the
lawsuit, since the summons and complaint were accepted by
its representative on April 4, 2013-–well before the
April 23 deadline.
Second, although this is Baker’s
second motion for an extension, granting the motion will
extend the service deadline to the date Baker requested
in his first motion.
For this reason, the court does not
3
view
this
second
request
as
evidence
that
Baker
is
dragging his heels.
***
Based on the foregoing, it is ORDERED that:
(1) Plaintiff Jeffery Baker’s motion for extension of
deadline of time to serve complaint (doc. no. 13) is
granted.
(2) Plaintiff Baker has until May 13, 2013, to serve
his complaint.
DONE, this the 15th day of April, 2013.
/s/ Myron H. Thompson
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
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