3-105.Service of summons.

Section 3-105 requires that a summons issued in a review action be served by registered or certified mail on the administrative agency and on each other defendant. An exception applies to review of a decision of a regional board of school trustees, regional superintendent of schools, or the State Superintendent of Education, when a committee of 10 has been designated under Section 7-6 of the School Code — in that case, only the agency and each member of the committee of 10 need be served.

Where the act governing the agency's procedure specifies a method of service, that method controls; otherwise, the decision (and, by the same default, the summons) is deemed served when personally delivered, or when deposited in the mail, in a sealed, postage-prepaid envelope, addressed to the affected party's last known residence or place of business.

The section builds in two related safe harbors. No action is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction based on a failure to serve an individual employee, agent, or member of an agency, board, committee, or government entity who acted in an official capacity, as long as the agency, board, committee, or entity itself was served. Service on the director or agency head, in that person's official capacity, counts as service on the entity — and the reverse holds too: no action is dismissed for failing to serve the entity where the director or agency head, in an official capacity, was served instead.

On the mechanics, the clerk of the court serves the agency by mailing a copy of the summons to its main office in the State, and mails a copy to each other defendant at the last known address the plaintiff supplies by affidavit filed with the complaint. The clerk's certificate that service was made under this section is evidence that it was done.