Also known as: personal services · personally serve · personally served · personal serving · personal delivery · service in person
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A contractual duty requiring performance by a particular individual because of unique skill, judgment, or personal qualities. Such duties are not subject to specific enforcement by a court.
Actual delivery of legal process to the intended recipient or service effected while the recipient is physically present within the forum state.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
A contractual duty requiring performance by a particular individual because of unique skill, judgment, or personal qualities. Such duties are not subject to specific enforcement by a court.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Progressive Healthcare hired Dr. Voss under a five-year contract requiring her personal on-site supervision of emissions controls. After two years Dr. Voss resigned to lead a competing project. Progressive sought an injunction barring her new employment. The court refused the injunction because the duty involved personal service that equity will not compel.
Pacific Bank leased warehouse space to Premier Manufacturing under a month-to-month tenancy. The lease required the tenant to provide specialized on-site maintenance services using its own engineers. Premier attempted to assign the lease to Prism Analytics. Pacific refused consent. The assignment was invalid because transfer would substantially impair Pacific's ability to obtain the required personal services.
Priscilla Parks contracted to perform exclusively for Premier Manufacturing for three years. After one year she signed with a competitor. Premier sought an injunction barring her new employment. The court denied the injunction because enforcement would compel continued personal relations that equity will not force or would leave Parks without reasonable means of livelihood.
A court refuses because compelling an individual to perform unique personal work raises concerns of involuntary servitude and creates impractical ongoing judicial supervision. The Restatement therefore bars specific enforcement of such promises.
Supporting sources
Transfer is restricted when the lease requires significant personal services from either party and assignment would substantially impair the other party's ability to obtain those services. A month-to-month tenancy at will also prevents free transferability.
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Actual delivery of legal process to the intended recipient or service effected while the recipient is physically present within the forum state.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Patricia Patel was served with a summons while attending a one-day conference in State A. The underlying claim arose from events in State B. Patel moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The court upheld jurisdiction because personal service while physically present in the forum satisfies due process even for brief presence.
Paula Pierce obtained a child-support judgment in State T. The father traveled to State K for a training seminar and was handed the registration documents in a federal building lobby. The father contested personal jurisdiction in the enforcement action. The State K court held that personal service within the state supplied a statutory basis for jurisdiction under UIFSA.
Perry Pratt administered a trust with hundreds of beneficiaries whose addresses were known. The trustee mailed notice of an accounting proceeding to each known beneficiary. Unknown beneficiaries received notice by publication. The court held that mail notice to known parties satisfied due process while publication sufficed for unknown parties.
Yes. The Supreme Court has upheld transient or tag jurisdiction, holding that service of process on a defendant physically present in the forum state satisfies due process even when presence is brief and the claim is unrelated to that presence.
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Personal service of the summons or notice within the state on a nonresident individual supplies an independent statutory basis for personal jurisdiction in a support or parentage proceeding.
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…in the property would be affected. Ibid. Similarly, if the defendant consented to the jurisdiction of the state courts or was personally served within the State, a judgment could affect his interest in property outside the State. But any attempt "directly" to assert extraterritorial jurisdiction over persons or property would…
…the strict doctrine of Pennoyer v. Neff , 95 U. S. 714, the Surrogate is without jurisdiction as to nonresidents upon whom personal service
…month she petitioned the District Court of Jackson County, Iowa, for a dissolution of her marriage. Michael Sosna, who had been personally served with notice of the action when he came to Iowa to visit his children, made a special appearance to contest the jurisdiction of the Iowa court. The Iowa court dismissed the petition for lack…
…matrimonial domicil of the parties, or, if not, that the wife be subjected to the jurisdiction of the court [below] either by personal service within the State, or by voluntary appearance and participation in the suit." It held that the matrimonial domicil was not in Virginia; that respondent's special appearance did not give the…
…by a substituted person would be different from that contracted for." But to apply the law of contracts for the rendering of
An injunction is denied when its probable effect would be to compel continued performance of personal relations that equity finds undesirable or would leave the employee without other reasonable means of livelihood.
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Notice by publication is permissible for unknown beneficiaries when the cost of personal service on every party would be prohibitive, provided known beneficiaries receive the best practical notice such as mail.
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