Short answer. No. When spouses are sued jointly, Rule 14, Section 11 requires that service of summons be made to each spouse individually. A single summons handed to one spouse does not, by itself, bring the other before the court — each defendant spouse must be served in his or her own right.
What the law says
When spouses are sued jointly, service of summons should be made to each spouse individually.
Rule 14, Section 11 — Service upon spouses. Read the full provision →
Each spouse is a separate defendant
The section is one sentence: When spouses are sued jointly, service of summons should be made to each spouse individually. Behind it is a simple premise that marriage does not change: a husband and a wife named in one complaint are two defendants, not one unit answering through either of its members. Service of summons is how a court acquires authority over a defendant's person, and that authority is acquired person by person. The Rules refuse to treat the household as a single doorway through which both spouses can be summoned at once.
Why one summons is not enough
A spouse who was never served has not been notified in the way the law requires, however completely the other spouse knows about the case. Notice through a family member is not the individual service the section demands for a defendant spouse, and the difference is not a technicality — the entire ability of the court to bind a person with its judgment starts from valid service on that person. Where the case seeks relief against both spouses, or against property in which both have an interest, service on each is what places both properly before the court.
What the unserved spouse should consider
If you are the spouse who never received a summons, take the defect seriously and take it to counsel early — but carefully. Objections of this kind are raised at the threshold, and conduct matters: a defendant who simply participates in the case as though served may end up submitting to the court's authority despite the defective service. The served spouse, meanwhile, has their own deadlines running and must respond regardless. The sound course is a prompt, deliberate decision about how to raise the defect, made with a lawyer who has seen the return of service and the complaint.
The lesson for plaintiffs suing spouses
For a plaintiff, this section is a checklist item that costs little to satisfy and a great deal to miss: instruct the process server that each spouse must be served individually, and verify from the return that this actually happened before the case moves. A judgment pursued against a spouse who was never validly summoned is a judgment built on a defect the other side can attack, possibly after years of litigation. Two summonses at the start are far cheaper than one jurisdictional fight at the end.