A process server has been unable to find a Canadian snowbird being sued in the deaths of a husband and wife who were run down by his SUV nearly one year ago in The Villages.
Wilfred Maybee, who is now 90, on the afternoon of April 9 had been at the wheel of a 2017 Lexus RX 350 that struck 83-year-old Edwin Mann and 84-year-old Marilyn Mann of Stonecrest when they were in the marked crosswalk of the Winn-Dixie on Bichara Boulevard in Spanish Springs. She died that night at Ocala Regional Medical Center. Her husband died there two days later.
The couple’s children have filed a lawsuit against Maybee.
In December, a Lake County judge issued a summons for Maybee, who is believed to live in Collingwood, Ontario. Apparently, unable to find him there, a process server with Venture Investigations & Service in Florida was assigned the task of trying to find Maybee here in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. At the time of the crash, Maybee owned a home in the Rio Grande Villas which he purchased in 2010 for $159,000. He sold the courtyard villa this past May for $279,129.
The process server went to Maybee’s former home in The Villages on Feb. 15. The villa is apparently being rented out by the new owner and the tenant informed the process server that Maybee no longer resides in the home. On March 14, the process server went to a home in the Village of Mira Mesa, owned by a woman also with the name Maybee. She informed the process server she had never heard of Wilfred Maybee.
The clocking is ticking for the plaintiffs in the case, as the judge ordered that the complaint must be served within 120 days.
In the lawsuit, family members claim that they incurred funeral and burial expenses, medical expenses and pain and suffering. In addition, one of the children “is 100 percent disabled” and relied on the parents as his caretaker.
They also claim that Maybee struck their parents “and continued to drive away until he lost control of his vehicle approximately 100 yards from the crash site and drove into a building.”
Maybee later offered a plea in absentia in Lake County Court to a charge of driving on an expired license (of less than six months.) He was fined $116 and ordered to pay $100 in prosecution costs, according to a plea agreement.