Is a failure to serve a claim a flaw in jurisdictional consequence?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Kaur v Virk, 2022 BCSC 173 (CanLII):

As observed in William v. Lake Babine Indian Band, [2000] 1 C.N.L.R. 233 (B.C.S.C.), 1999 CanLII 6121, failure to serve a claim is a flaw of jurisdictional consequence:

The proper and valid service of documents involving litigation is fundamental to any further proceedings by which the litigation is advanced and imperative in order for a court to assume jurisdiction over the subject of the litigation. Such a fundamental concept was enunciated over half a century ago. It remains as valued today as it was when Lord Green, M.R. observed in Craig v. Klassen, [1943] 1 K.B. 256 at p. 262: It is beyond question that failure to serve process where service of process in required goes to the root of our conceptions of the proper procedure in litigation.

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