Minn. Stat. § 504B.331 governs service of process in an Eviction Action and permits three service methods. One is nail and mail. When nail and mail is used, after the Summons and Complaint is mailed, the process server must post it “in a conspicuous place on the property”. On rare occasions when the tenant lives in a multi-unit building, a lazy or sly process will post the Summons and Complaint on the main door of the building instead of the tenant’s own door. Is this permitted by section 504B.331? Doing so seems absurd but the current language of section 504B.331 is a tad unclear.
As shown in this essay (in Word and in PDF), the statute’s legislative history shows that the Summons and Complaint must be posted on the tenant’s own unit, not on the main building door. Posting only on the main building door is not just absurd but violates Minn. Stat. § 504B.331. The Word version of the essay includes hyperlinks to cited statutes, cases, and other legal materials.
Birnberg Minnesota Legislative Newsletter 