¶ 15. dissenting. To initiate a lawsuit, a party, or the court on the party’s behalf, must follow very specific requirements, and no relief is appropriate unless an action has been properly instituted. Plaintiff, or the court, did not comply with the rules here, and plaintiff therefore was not entitled to the relief granted to her by the trial court. I would reach the merits of defendant’s insufficient-service-of-process defense, and either direct that service be quashed or that the case be dismissed. I therefore dissent.
¶ 16. To initiate a relief-from-abuse case, a plaintiff must file a complaint supported by an affidavit. 15 V.S.A. § 1103(a). By statute, such complaints, as well as ex parte temporary relief-from-abuse orders or final orders, must “be served in accordance with the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure and may be served by any law enforcement officer.”1 Id. § 1105(a).
¶ 17. By statute, relief-from-abuse procéedings are governed by the Vermont Rules for Family Proceedings. 15 V.S.A. § 1106(a); see V.R.F.P. 9. In turn, the family rules specify that these proceedings are governed by the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure unless there is a conflict with a specific family rule or a statute. V.R.F.P. 9(a)(1). The question before us is governed by the civil rules because the requirements of these rules are not in conflict with the statute or the specific family rules.
*505, ¶ 18. Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 4(c) governs service of a temporary relief-from-abuse order because attached to that order is the plaintiffs complaint. The temporary order also contains a notice of hearing, similar to a summons, informing the defendant when and where a hearing will be held on the plaintiffs complaint. The defendant is notified that if he or she fails to appear at the hearing, an order may be issued granting the plaintiffs requests for relief as the court deems appropriate.
¶ 19. By rule, complaints and summonses must be served “by a sheriff or deputy sheriff, by a constable or other person authorized by law, or by some indifferent person specially appointed for that purpose by any superior judge, or a judge of the court to which it is returnable.” V.R.C.P. 4(c). By making service of process a public responsibility, the rule ensures oversight of the service process, and it impresses on individuals served the seriousness of the litigation process. It is a critical neutral requirement to ensure due process of law. Defendant was not served in accordance with this rule. He was served by a unit manager at the prison, and the lawsuit was therefore never properly initiated.
¶20. Proper service of process is imperative. As we have explained, while a court may have subject matter jurisdiction over a case, it cannot exercise this authority on its own motion. Howe v. Lisbon San Bank & Trust Co., 111 Vt. 201, 207, 14 A.2d 3, 6 (1940). Instead, the “parties and their case must be brought before it,” which “is accomplished by the use of process.” Id. The court is thereby “empowered to exercise its judicial authority and so when we state that process confers jurisdiction we mean that it empowers the court to exercise authority derived from law.” Id. at 208, 14 A.2d at 6 (explaining that this authority is passive in nature until made active by process or something that the law permits to perform the function of it). The U.S. Supreme Court expresses a similar view: “Service of process, under longstanding tradition in our system of justice, is fundamental to any procedural imposition on a named defendant.” Murphy Bros., Inc. v. Michetti Pipe Stringing, Inc., 526 U.S. 344, 350 (1999). In other words, “one becomes a party officially, and is required to take action in that capacity, only upon service of a summons or other authority-asserting measure stating the time within which the party served must appear and defend.” Id.
¶ 21. While it is true that the defense of insufficient service of process can be waived, the conditions necessary for waiver are not *506present here. The civil rules contemplate the filing of a complaint, followed by an answer. Under the rules, a defendant has at least twenty days in which to file an answer and raise defenses such as insufficient service of process. See V.R.C.P. 12(a)(1). Alternatively, a defendant can raise such a defense by motion prior to the filing of an answer. V.R.C.P. 12(b). By rule, the defense of insufficient service of process is waived if not made by motion or included in a responsive pleading or an amendment thereof. V.R.C.P. 12(h)(1).
¶22. The relief-from-abuse process does not contemplate the filing of an answer, however, nor will twenty days generally elapse before issuance of a final order. Indeed, the law requires that, where a temporary relief-from-abuse order has been granted, a final hearing must be held within ten days. 15 V.S.A. § 1104. Under these circumstances, there can be no basis for finding waiver under the civil rules.
¶ 23. For the same reason, this case is also distinguishable from Myers v. Brown, 143 Vt. 159, 465 A.2d 254 (1983), cited by the majority. In Myers, a defendant sought to set aside a default judgment because it had never been served with either a complaint or a summons. The defendant had actual knowledge of the lawsuit, but the plaintiffs served the wrong party. Despite knowledge of the suit, the defendant did not file any motion, answer, or other responsive pleadings within the time permitted by Civil Rule 12. We agreed with the defendant that service had been insufficient, but concluded that this was a procedural shortcoming of the type that may be waived. As we explained, “a party who has received actual notice of a suit against him must raise all the jurisdictional objections listed in V.R.C.P. 12(h)(1) within the time and in the manner prescribed by that rule, else they are waived.” Id. at 167, 465 A.2d at 258.
¶ 24. Defendant here had no opportunity to raise the defense of insufficient service of process “within the time and in the manner prescribed” by Civil Rule 12 because a final order issued before twenty days elapsed. Thus, defendant could not have waived this defense.
¶ 25. The majority decision refers in numerous places to notice of the hearing and service of the temporary restraining order. The fact that defendant knew of the time and date of the hearing and did not appear, and knew of the issuance of the temporary ex parte order, is irrelevant to the determination of whether there *507was proper service of the complaint.2 If we want to create a requirement to raise improper service at the hearing on a permanent order, we should amend the family rules to provide for that requirement or specify that failure to appear at the hearing is a waiver of service. The proper course of action is not to dispense with the clear requirement for service of process contained in the governing rule.
¶ 26. We should conclude that service was not properly made in this case, and direct the trial court to either dismiss the case or quash the service made on defendant. See generally 5B C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1354, at 348 (3d ed. 2004) (explaining that where party moves to dismiss for insufficient service of process, court may either dismiss action or quash process without dismissing action, and noting that difference between two results is not substantial). Plaintiff can then either reinstitute the action, or, if service is quashed, simply reserve defendant in accordance with the rules. We should not allow plaintiff to avoid her responsibility for ensuring proper service, and we should not allow a court to grant relief where a lawsuit was not properly initiated.
¶ 27. I am authorized to state that Justice Robinson joins this dissent.
The statute also provides another means of service — a defendant is deemed to have been served if he or she attends a hearing at which a temporary or final order is issued, and receives notice from the court on the record that the order has been issued. 15 V.S.A. § 1105(a). That provision is not at issue here.
The majority cites the nonprecedential three-justice decision in Gaboriault v. Van Aelstyn, No. 2003-290, 2004 WL 5583286, at *2 (Vt. Jan. 7, 2004) (unpub. mem.), http://www.vermontjudiciary.org/d-upeo/upeo.aspx, for the proposition that defendant had to appear at the hearing or he waived any defense based upon improper service of process. The decision indicates that defendant made “no specific argument in support of the claim,” and this appears to be the basis for the decision. Id. In any event, the decision contains no analysis of the rules on service or our waiver-of-defense jurisprudence and is not precedential.