The plaintiff moved to validate service of an amended statement of claim and to extend the time for its service.
The amended claim substituted the originally named defendant with a newly identified driver, discovered at examinations for discovery.
The amended claim was not served on the new defendant until more than twenty-seven months after the amending order was issued.
The court granted the insurer standing as a friend of the court under Rule 13.02.
The motion to validate service was dismissed as personal service required no validation.
The motion to extend time was granted on the basis that the prejudice alleged by the insurer was largely self-created by its own failure to take available steps, and no direct evidence of actual prejudice from the delay itself was established.
The court declined to dismiss the action for delay, finding the conduct, while serious, did not reach the inordinate and inexcusable level required.
The improperly filed trial record — accompanied by a false solicitor's certificate — was set aside pursuant to Rules 1.04(1) and (2).
