Securities & Exchange Commission v. Internet Solutions for Business Inc.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) filed a civil enforcement action against Lawrence Shaw. The SEC asserts it served Shaw through a British process server, who found and served Shaw with a copy of the SEC complaint at Shaw’s foreign business address in England. Shaw failed to appear, and the district court entered final judgment against him. More than three and a half years after default judgment was entered, Shaw moved to set it aside. The district court denied the motion and Shaw appeals, arguing that the judgment is void for lack of personal jurisdiction because he was never served with process, or, if he was served with process, that it was insufficient because it did not comply with the Hague Convention. The district court ruled that Shaw did not meet his burden to prove that he was not properly served.

We join our sister circuits in holding that a defendant moving to vacate a default judgment based on improper service of process, where the defendant had actual notice of the original proceeding but delayed in bringing the motion until after entry of default judgment, bears the burden of proving that service did not occur. See Burda Media, Inc. v.…