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Lewis v. Combined Transport9/13/2005
942)). A plaintiff who commences an action by filing a complaint must serve one or more of the defendants personally or by publication within 90 days of that filing. RCW 4.16.170; Brown, 76 Wn. App. at 420.
Lewis had three years from the date of the accident, or until December 11, 2003, to commence his action, either by filing the complaint and serving a defendant within 90 days of filing or by serving the summons and complaint before that date. Lewis filed a complaint on December 9, 2003. Thus, unless Lewis effectively served one of the defendants, the statute of limitations ran on March 8, 2004, 90 days after Lewis filed the summons and complaint on December 9.
Service on Combined Transport Outside of Washington
Lewis contends that he timely served Combined Transport and points to the affidavit he filed on December 29, 2003, attesting that Padilla had personally served Combined Transport by leaving a copy with its registered agent in Oregon. Lewis argues that this service was valid under RCW 4.28.180 notwithstanding his failure to meet the requirements of RCW 4.28.185 for service outside of Washington. We disagree.
Service outside of the state is in derogation of common law and the statutes permitting service must be strictly followed to make that service effective. Boyd v. Kulczyk, 115 Wn. App. 411, 415, 63 P.3d 156 (2003); RCL Northwest, Inc. v. Colorado Resources, Inc., 72 Wn. App. 265, 270, 864 P.2d 12 (1993); Hatch v. Princess Louise Corp., 13 Wn. App. 378, 379, 534 P.2d 1036 (1975).
RCW 4.28.180 states:
Personal service of summons or other process may be made upon any party outside the state. If upon a citizen or resident of this state or upon a person who has submitted to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state, it shall have the force and effect of personal service within this state; otherwise it shall have the force and effect of service by publication. The summons upon the party out of the state shall contain the same and be served in like manner as personal summons within the state, except it shall require the party to appear and answer within sixty days after such personal service out of the state.
RCW 4.28.185 lists the acts under which a person 'submits . . . to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state as to any cause of action arising from the doing' of any of these acts. RCW 4.28.185(1). Combined Transport is a 'person' who is subject to the jurisdiction of Washington courts both because it was doing business and because its agent/employee was involved in a tortious act in Washington. RCW 4.28.185(1)(a) and (b).
RCW 4.28.185 also governs the method of service of process upon a defendant whose acts have submitted it to the jurisdiction of Washington's courts: Service of process upon any person who is subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state, as provided in this section, may be made by personally serving the defendant outside this state, as provided in RCW 4.28.180, with the same force and effect as though personally served within this state.
RCW 4.28.185(2). But '{p}ersonal service outside the state shall be valid only when an affidavit is made and filed to the effect that service cannot be made within the state.' RCW 4.28.185(4) (emphasis added).
We construe an act as a whole, giving effect to all the language used, with related statutory provisions interpreted in relation to one another. C.J.C. v. Corp. of the Catholic Bishop of Yakima, 138 Wn.2d 699, 708-09, 985 P.2d 262 (1999); see also ITT Rayonier, Inc. v. Dalman, 122 Wn.2d 801, 807, 863 P.2d 64 (1993) ('statutory provisions must be read in their entirety and construed together, not piec
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