BCO 32.10

The Historical Development of the Book of Church Order

Chapter 32 : General Provisions Applicable to all Cases of Process

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Paragraph 10

32-10. Before proceeding to trial, courts ought to ascertain that their citations have been duly served.

DIGEST : The current PCA text remains unchanged from PCA 1973 and predecessor texts back to PCUS 1879.

BACKGROUND AND COMPARISON :
1. PCA 1973, RoD, 6-10, Adopted text, as printed in the Minutes of General Assembly, p. 147
2. Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, RoD, 6-10, Proposed text, p. 44
3. PCUS 1933, RoD, VI-§202
4. PCUS 1925, RoD, VI-§202
5. PCUS 1879, Rules of Discipline, VI-10
Before proceeding to trial, courts ought to ascertain that their citations have been duly served.

PCUS 1869 draft, Canons of Discipline, VI-11
Courts, before proceeding to trial, ought to ascertain that their citations have been duly served on the persons of those cited, or delivered at their dwellings, especially before they proceed to ultimate measures for contumacy.

PCUS 1867 draft, Canons of Discipline, VI-11
Courts, before proceeding to trial ought to ascertain that their citations have been duly served on the persons of those cited, or delivered at their dwellings, especially before they proceed to ultimate measures for contumacy.

PCUSA 1858, Revised Book of Discipline, Chapter IV - Actual Process, paragraph 6
Judicatories, before proceeding to trial, ought to ascertain that their citations have been duly served, and especially before they proceed to ultimate measures for contumacy.

COMMENTARY :
F.P. Ramsay, Exposition of the Book of Church Order (1898, p. 199), on Rules of Discipline, VI-10:
181.—X. Before proceeding to trial, courts ought to ascertain that their citations have been duly served.
It is not enough to ascertain that the citations were issued in due time, but also that they reached the persons cited in due time.