Leaving a summons lying on the grass where it can blow away or not be noticed is not the appropriate way to serve it, especially if the document involves something as big as the possibility of losing one’s home.

This, notes a Pretoria News report, is according to a full Bench of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), who said a sheriff who served a summons always had a duty to ensure that it would land in the correct hands. The court said where delivery of a notice or summons was to be delivered to the home of the person involved it would, equally, not be enough to merely drop it over the fence or stick it into a hedge. This issue came about after the sheriff of the court arrived at a home in Bela Bela to issue summons on Anet Maré and claimed he attached a copy to her gate and on the lawn. This despite Maré saying that she was home at the time. Maré said she did not receive the summons and so had no idea of pending legal proceedings against her, or of the bank’s intention to sell the house, which it did without her knowledge after obtaining a default judgment when she failed
to appear in court.