Earls v. Harvest Credit Management VI-B, LLC

Summary

The Arkansas Supreme Court held that a summons was defective because it misstated the response period for incarcerated defendants, even though the defendants served in the case were not incarcerated. Applying Arkansas's strict-compliance standard for summonses, the court reversed the default judgment and denial of the motion to set it aside, remanded the case, and vacated the court of appeals' opinion.

Holdings

1. A summons must state the response times correctly and exactly for each category of defendant identified in the summons, including in-state, out-of-state, and incarcerated defendants. An incorrect response time renders the summons noncompliant with Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 4(b), even when the error does not apply to the actual defendants served.
2. Because Harvest's summons contained an incorrect response time, it failed to strictly comply with Rules 4(b) and 12(a), rendering service defective and requiring reversal of the default judgment and denial of the motion to set aside the judgment.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a summons is defective when it incorrectly states the response period for a category of defendants that does not include the actual defendants served.
2. Whether the defective summons deprived the circuit court of jurisdiction and required setting aside the default judgment.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded