SHORT TAKES : Post Office? You Can’t Beat It

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor dark of night, nor Michael Jackson shall keep the U.S. Postal Service from its appointed rounds.

That’s what lawyer Thomas Wampold reasoned after trying to serve a summons and other court papers on Jackson.

Wampold filed a class-action suit that alleges Jackson was not sick, as he said he was, when he canceled three concerts in Tacoma, and that he therefore committed a breach of contract with 72,000 fans.

A telephone call seeking comment from Jackson’s publicist, Lee Solters, in Los Angeles on Sunday was not immediately returned.

The suit also names Ticketmaster Corp., which withheld service fees from refunds on tickets sold to the canceled October and November, 1988, concerts.

Wampold had no luck trying to reach Jackson’s attorney in Los Angeles by telephone. So he decided to have a process server go to Jackson’s residence.

But process server Mark Hamilton was turned away repeatedly by guards at Jackson’s Encino and Malibu homes. At Encino, Hamilton was first told that Jackson didn’t live there, and then was told that he was out of town and wouldn’t be back for several weeks.

Wampold finally asked King County Judge Marsha Pechman for an order allowing him to give Jackson legal notice of the case by first-class and certified mail. The judge granted the request.

Wampold figures guards may turn away process servers, but nothing stops the U.S. Postal Service.