McDonald v. Mabee
Facts
This case involved a suit on a promissory note, with the material defense being an earlier Texas judgment on the same note that purported both to foreclose a lien and to bind the defendant personally. When that earlier suit began, Mabee was technically domiciled in Texas but had left the state intending to establish his home elsewhere, although his family still lived there. After a brief return to Texas, he later established domicile in Missouri. In the earlier suit, the only service after his final departure was publication in a local newspaper once a week for four consecutive weeks, and he did not appear.
Issue
Whether a state may, consistent with due process, enter an ordinary personal money judgment against a defendant who has left the state intending not to return, based solely on service by publication in a local newspaper. Relatedly, the Court considered whether such a judgment, if invalid for lack of due process, is ineffective both outside the state and within the rendering state.
Rule
An ordinary personal judgment for money is invalid if the defendant was not served in a manner amounting to due process of law. Service by publication in a local newspaper is not sufficient to bind personally a person who has left the state intending not to return; when personal service is dispensed with, the substitute used must at least be the method most likely to reach the defendant if substantial justice is to be done.
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