Recent Jurisprudence – Service of Citation in a Labor Lawsuit (More than One Defendant)

Written By: Adrian Salgado

Cacheaux Cavazos & Newton

Recently, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) approved legal opinion Number 2a./J.98/2013 (10a) titled "Service of Citation in a Labor Lawsuit. The procedure to be followed by the Labor Board when more than one defendant is named and one or more of them was not able to be served with citation." In such opinion, the Second Chamber of the SCJN finds that when it is not possible to serve all of the defendants in the initial complaint because their domicile was not provided or the one provided was incorrect, if there is no express provision that indicates how to proceed in such case, the Labor Board, in the conciliation hearing, must establish, by operation of law, a new date for the hearing., The Labor Board must require that the plaintiff provide the correct domicile of the defendant or defendants that could not be served with citation, advising them that if they do not do so within 3 business days, the complaint will not be considered to be duly filed against those that could not be served with citation, and the lawsuit will continue only against the employer(s) legally served with citation. As indicated by the Second Chamber, this determination results in a systematic interpretation of Articles 17, 685, 735 and 874 of the law regarding the matter. This legal opinion was resolved by contradiction and is still pending publication in the Weekly Federal Court Reporter.

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