Personal service of a court document may be accomplished by leaving a copy with the person designated in the document. What is meant by “leaving a copy of the document” with that person is not defined by Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador rules.
The legendary court bailiff and sheriff’s officer, William (Billy) Chafe (died Nov. 25 2004), advised my clever law clerk Anthony (Tony) Benson, that if a person refused to accept the court document, personal service could be achieved by touching the person with the document and permitting it to fall beside her or him.
Benson, a MUN bachelor’s graduate in economics, put this advice to productive use on a November day many years ago. On my instructions, at 9:30 a.m., he took a statement of claim (a document commencing a civil legal action) to the Supreme Court trial registry, then on Duckworth Street. There, the then-deputy Registrar of the Court, Henry J. Thorne, recorded and issued the statement of claim and returned it with a true copy to Benson. He, in turn, motored to a southern shore community, south of Tors Cove, to personally serve the copy. He was told not to return to my law firm until service was achieved.
Benson was just arriving at the residence of the person to be served as she left her driveway in a vehicle. He waved to her. She responded by a carnal gesture toward him with her left hand, and sped away. Benson gave chase. His pursuit of the woman involved stops in Goulds at Bidgood’s grocery, in St. John’s at Waterford Hospital, at a craft store and a law firm office on Duckworth Street, and in Holyrood at the Royal Canadian Legion.
During these stops Benson was unable to reach the woman to serve the document.
Benson next followed the woman across Witless Bay Line, and back down the southern shore highway to her residence.
By now, he had developed a plan he hoped would achieve service.
The woman exited her vehicle and ran toward her residence. She commenced climbing two flights of stairs to her front door. Benson vacated his vehicle and followed on foot, holding the copy of the court document. By now he had folded the document into the shape of an airplane.
As he later reported to me, he fashioned the document to have broad delta wings like a Concorde supersonic jet.
Just before the woman reached her front door, Benson — having taken account of prevailing wind direction and speed — released the document.
Now a paper projectile, the document soared, banked right, sped toward the woman, and struck her in the left cheek (of her face); causing her to scream.
Benson shouted at the woman, “you have been served.”
A man appeared at the front door in bathrobe and sneakers. He picked up and examined the document, then ran toward Benson. As Benson hastily re-entered his vehicle, the man entered the woman’s car. Benson fled back to St. John’s, unsuccessfully pursued as far as Tors Cove, by the man.
In reporting to me in my law office, about 11:45 p.m. same day, his success in serving the legal document, Benson asked if I would represent him were he to be charged with common assault.
To his request I replied, first, that there is nothing “common” about assault. And second, I told Benson, that I, not he, needed to be concerned about a visit from police, because the plates on the vehicle he was operating were registered to me.
Benson has been aptly described by the barrister Bob Buckingham, QC, as a gentle, caring person and a loyal, reliable law clerk.
Provided, while recently ill, with peerless care by his sister Deanna Houston, an HSC nurse, Tony Benson died on March 5, 2020, aged 57 years, in St. John’s.
David C. Day, QC
St. John’s