1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 OSCAR RAMOS, 7 Case No. 25-cv-05896-JCS Plaintiff, 8 v. ORDER GRANTING RENEWED 9 APPLICATION TO SERVE BY BAJA CALI INC., et al., PUBLICATION 10 Defendants. Re: Dkt. No. 13 11

12 13 Plaintiff has filed a renewed application to serve the summons and complaint by 14 publication on Defendants Gerasimos Georgopoulos and Gerasimoula Georgopoulos (“the 15 Georgopoulos defendants”). Dkt. no. 13 (“Motion”). According to counsel’s declaration, multiple 16 unsuccessful attempts have been made to personally serve the Georgopoulos defendants at their 17 residence at 980 Stewart Road, Yuba City, CA 9599 (“Yuba City address”). Dkt. no. 13-1 18 (Second MacBride Decl.) ¶¶ 2-8. The process server who made these service attempts stated that 19 the property is gated and therefore they were unable to gain access to personally serve the 20 Georgopoulos defendants. Dkt. no. 7-1 at ECF pp. 4-6 (First Ronalds Decl.) ¶ 6 & attached Non- 21 Service Reports. Plaintiff’s counsel also attempted to serve the summons and complaint by 22 registered mail to the same address but the package was returned as unclaimed. Second MacBride 23 Decl. ¶ 7. 24 After the Court denied Plaintiff’s initial request to serve by publication, see dkt. no. 11, the 25 process server conducted additional searches to determine if there were any alternative addresses 26 where the Georgopoulos defendants might be served. Dkt. no. 13-1 at ECF pp. 23-25 (Third 27 Ronalds Decl.) ¶¶ 3-5. Ronalds states that although he conducted additional searches, he was 1 Plaintiff’s counsel has also supplied a supplemental declaration identifying the publication 2 in which he seeks to publish the summons, the Appeal Democrat, https://www.appeal- 3 democrat.com/, which he states “is the main newspaper in Sutter County and the Yuba City area” 4 and therefore is most likely to give actual notice, because it is published in the same city as the 5 residence of defendants, Yuba City, California.” Dkt. no. 15 (MacBride Supp. Decl.) ¶ 4 (citing 6 Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §415.50(b)). 7 Service of a complaint in federal court is governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4. 8 Rule 4(e)(1) allows for service “following state law for serving a summons in an action brought in 9 courts of general jurisdiction in the state where the district court is located or where service is 10 made.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(e)(1). Under California Code of Civil Procedure § 415.50, “[a] summons 11 may be served by publication if upon affidavit it appears to the satisfaction of the court in which 12 the action is pending that the party to be served cannot with reasonable diligence be served in 13 another manner specified in this article and that,” as relevant here, “[a] cause of action exists 14 against the party.” Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 415.50. 15 Based on the declarations supplied by Plaintiff’s counsel and the process server, the Court 16 finds that the Georgopoulos defendants cannot with reasonable diligence be served in another 17 manner and therefore, service by publication is warranted. The Court further concludes a cause of 18 action exists against the Georgopoulos defendants as Plaintiff alleges in the complaint that the 19 Georgopoulos defendants are the real property owners of the business that is alleged to be in 20 violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in this case. Compl. ¶ 3; see also Macias v. 21 Fasail, No. 19-CV-00728-LHK,

, at *6 (N.D. Cal. July 1, 2021) (finding 22 similar allegations sufficient to establish that a cause of action existed for the purposes of Cal. 23 Code Civ. Proc. § 415.50). 24 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s application to serve the Georgopoulos 25 defendants by publication. In accordance with Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 415.50 and Cal. Gov’t Code 26 § 6064, Plaintiff’s counsel shall arrange for publication of the summons in the print and electronic 27 editions of the Appeal Democrat once a week for four consecutive weeks. In addition, Plaintiff 1 Yuba City address. Upon completion of service, Plaintiff shall file an affidavit establishing that 2 || the Georgopoulos defendants were served in accordance with this Order. 3 IT IS SO ORDERED. 4 5 Dated: December 15, 2025 6 J PH C. SPERO 7 nited States Magistrate Judge 8 9 10 11 12

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