Summons Bosch by edict after letters rogatory to Guatemala fail to achieve personal service
Jun 21 2024
16th Civil Court
Summoning Edict No. 246, issued on June 21, 2024 by the Sixteenth Circuit Civil Court of the First Judicial Circuit of Panama, formally summoned Juan Luis Bosch Gutiérrez to appear in the summary accounting proceeding brought against him by Lisa, S.A. The edict was published for five consecutive days in La Estrella de Panamá, from July 8 through 12, 2024.
The resort to service by edict followed the exhaustion of ordinary notification mechanisms. In July 2023, the court had issued letters rogatory to Guatemala for personal service on Bosch, a Guatemalan national. In October 2023, diplomatic dispatch of those letters was authorized. In January 2024, Lisa filed a motion requesting information on the Guatemalan authority that had received the letters rogatory, reflecting the lack of response to international service attempts. Having exhausted personal notification, the court turned to service by edict as a subsidiary mechanism.
The edict granted Bosch twenty days from the date of the last publication to appear before the court through legal counsel and assert his rights. It expressly warned that failure to appear would result in the appointment of an absent-defendant attorney who would represent him through the remainder of the proceedings, pursuant to Article 1012 of the Judicial Code.
"Se le advierte al emplazado que si no comparece en el término indicado, se le nombrará un DEFENSOR DE AUSENTE con quien se seguirá el proceso en los estrados del Tribunal hasta su terminación" (Page 1)
Bosch did not appear within the prescribed period. On August 9, 2024, the court issued an order appointing Licenciado Miguel Ruiz as absent-defendant attorney, with litigation expenses set at $1,500.00. Bosch's failure to appear, despite publication in a nationally circulated newspaper, allowed the proceeding to advance without his direct participation.