National Dev. Co. v. Triad Holding Corp.
930 F.2d 253 (2d Cir. 1991)

  • National was attempting to sue a guy named Khashoggi (owner of Triad). They attempted to serve him with papers at his mansion in New York, and his housekeeper accepted the papers.
  • Khashoggi made a motion to dismiss the case for lack of service of process.
    • Khashoggi argued that his real address was in Saudi Arabia and that he routinely moved between a number of houses worldwide. He only stayed in NYC for about about a month per year. Therefore, the NYC address was not his dwelling house or usual place of abode, and therefore under Federal Rule 60(b)(4), sending a summons there did not meet the minimum standard of service of process.
  • The Trial Court denied the motion. Khashoggi appealed.
    • The Trial Court found that the NYC address did not meet the minimum standard.
    • However, the Court noted that regardless of how he got them, Khashoggi clearly now had the summons and therefore service of process had been satisfied.
  • The Appellate Court affirmed, but for opposite reasons.
    • The Appellate Court found that the Trial Court's assertion that Khasoggi now knew about the summons was insufficient.
    • However, the Court found that under Federal Rule 4(d)(1) (now Federal Rule 4(e)(2)), that the NYC address did count as his dwelling, so service of process had been successful met.
      • The Court found a person can have more than one dwelling or usual place of abode, so just because Khashoggi wasn't in NYC often it didn't make him immune.
      • Based on the Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co. (339 U.S. 306 (1950)) standard, the summons could be reasonably calculated to provide notice.