On December 24, 2024, the Second Department issued a decision in Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC v. Ashkenazi, 2024 NY Slip Op. 06576, holding that a bare denial of service is insufficient to rebut a process server’s affidavit, explaining:
The affidavits of the process server attesting that service was effectuated upon the defendant by delivery of a copy of the summons and complaint to a person of suitable age and discretion at the subject premises and by mailing a copy of the summons and complaint to the defendant to that same address constituted prima facie evidence of proper service pursuant to CPLR 308(2). Although a defendant’s sworn denial of receipt of service generally rebuts the presumption of proper service established by a process server’s affidavit and necessitates an evidentiary hearing, no hearing is required where the defendant fails to swear to specific facts to rebut the statements in the process server’s affidavits. Here, the defendant never denied the specific facts contained in the process server’s affidavits.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).