Philip Burgess, Jr., the founder of MicroBilt, yesterday filed a lawsuit against a trio of class action firms alleging his family was harassed by process servers, including those that made his wife and kids fear their home was being invaded and who did not wear a mask or gloves or maintain social distancing when attempting to serve documents to Burgess.
A copy of the complaint in the case of Burgess and MicroBilt v. Leonard A. Bennett, Consumer Litigation Associates, Kristi Cahoon Kelly, Kelly Guzzo, Plc, Jacob M. Polakoff, and Berger Montague can be accessed by clicking here.
The documents that were being served on Burgess are an “improper” attempt by the defendants to “coerce” the plaintiffs into settling litigation in another matter by “filing frivolous and unfounded civil litigation against them” and “by employing process servers to make repeated and harassing attempts to serve Plaintiff Philip Burgess with process in the aforementioned frivolous litigation at his Princeton home, causing fear and emotional distress to Plaintiffs Michelle Burgess, Alexandria Burgess and the minor children of Philip and Michelle Burgess.”
Starting on May 15 — well into the coronavirus pandemic — process servers started coming to Burgess’s house to serve documents. Three process servers made five visits to the house during a two-week span. On one occasion, a “heavyset” man “rang the doorbell and, without waiting for anyone to respond, began intentionally banging on the picture windows on the front of the house,” according to the complaint, making the occupants of the house fear that it was being invaded. When Burgess’s daughter answered the door and said the plaintiff was not at home, the server threw the documents into the house and walked away. In doing so the server came within a foot of the individuals standing in the doorway despite not wearing any personal protective equipment.
On another occasion, the “heavyset” man banged on a window of the house before ringing the doorbell and when a housekeeper answered the door, she was handed a deposition subpoena and a document subpoena even though the server was not wearing a mask or gloves and did not have the papers wrapped in plastic, all guidelines recommended for process servers working during the pandemic.
The underlying litigation stems from Burgess and MicroBilt being accused of selling consumer’s credit profiles to payday lenders without their permission.