A process server is alleging two key players in a loan foreclosure Northern Development Initiative Trust has launched against Commonwealth Campus Corp. evaded her attempts to serve them with court documents related to the case.
In affidavits filed this week at the Prince George courthouse, the server alleges she attempted several times to present the documents to Dan McLaren and Gordon Langer before concluding they have been deliberately avoiding her.
McLaren and Langer are among five people named in a petition NDIT filed in November to launch proceedings over a $1.4-million low-interest loan given to Commonwealth to acquire several city lots around the former Prince George Hotel site. The other three respondents - Dave McWalter, Don Kehler and the estate of Dan Gialleonardo - were all served without incident.
In affidavits, the server states that on Feb. 4, she went to the Commonwealth Financial office at 1448 Sixth Ave. two times to serve the two and when told they were not in the office attempted to serve them at their respective homes where no one answered.
The next day, she returned to the Sixth Avenue office three more times, leaving her business card on the second visit, then once again went to their homes that night.
When she showed up at Langer's home, she said that even though she saw him through a window sitting at a computer, no one answered despite ringing the doorbell several times. She then saw a woman walk down the hallway and turn into the room where Langer was sitting, "but still no one answered the door."
"I rang the doorbell again and banged on the front door three times but still no one answered the door," the server said in the affidavit. "The female clearly saw me at the front door. I looked around the corner and I could see that someone had closed the front blinds so you could not see inside the house."
When she went to McLaren's home, she said a woman answered the door, told her he was not home and suggested she try again the following night.
On February 6, she appeared at the Commonwealth office once more, where she was told McLaren had a dentist appointment, the same reason she was given two days before. No mention was made in the affidavits of trying to reach Langer at the office that day.
That night, the server said she went to the McLaren's home once again where a teenage boy answered the door and when she asked for McLaren, "the boy stated 'yes he is' and the boy hollered 'Dad.'
She then heard a man reply "yes" and the boy then said "someone is at the door for you."
"I heard a male voice say 'come here.' The boy went around the corner and when he returned to the door the boy said 'he is not here, I forgot he left.'
"I asked the boy when his father would be back and the boy stated 'I don't know, maybe tomorrow.'"
That same day, the server said she was told McLaren may be living in his summer cabin at Cluculz Lake and another server went to the location that night to find no one there.
The server also said she tried reaching the two in December at the office and their homes and left behind business cards. On one occasion, she said she was told the two had left the city for a meeting and when she appeared once more on the date they were to be back in Prince George, she was told the plane had to turn around and no one knew when they would be back.
Reached Friday by The Citizen, McLaren said he is now living in a new home. He provided the address to The Citizen and permitted the newspaper to pass it on to the server. After the address was forwarded to the server by The Citizen, the papers were served Friday afternoon and she was in the process of letting the lawyer know.
And later Friday afternoon, the server called The Citizen to say she had just received a "panicked call" from Langer, saying he is at the office and she can reach him there.
Had they not been reached, the server said counsel would have sought a court order allowing her to simply leave the documents at the front desk or at the front doors of their homes.
