Part I · Rule 54: Issuance and Service of Summons or Other Process · Last amended January 1, 1994 · Last verified July 22, 2026
Adopted Jan. 19, 1973, eff. Sept. 1, 1973. Amended June 1, 1993, eff. Jan. 1, 1994; Sept. 28, 1993, eff. Jan. 1, 1994.
Rule 54.07 extends Missouri’s reach to people connected to the state through domicile or residence, not through a specific act like the ones listed in Rule 54.06. It allows service outside the state, sufficient to support a general in personam judgment, against a person or that person’s executor, administrator, or other legal representative, if the person was domiciled in or a resident of Missouri at any one of three points in time.
Those three points are: when the claim for relief or cause of action accrued in Missouri, when the civil action was commenced, or when service of process occurs. Satisfying any one of the three is enough to bring the person within reach of this rule, even if that person has since moved out of state.
Once a defendant fits within Rule 54.07, service is carried out the same way it is under the long-arm rule in Rule 54.06 — through personal service outside the state under Rule 54.14, or through acknowledgment of service by mail under Rule 54.16.
Any person, executor, administrator, or other legal representative who was domiciled in or a resident of Missouri at the time the claim accrued, at the time the action was commenced, or at the time service is made.
No. Any one of the three time points — accrual of the claim, commencement of the action, or service of process — satisfies the rule; the person need not be a current Missouri resident.
Service of process is made as provided in Rule 54.14 (personal service outside the state) or Rule 54.16 (acknowledgment of service by mail).
Rule 54.06 reaches out-of-state defendants based on specific acts performed in Missouri, such as transacting business or committing a tort there. Rule 54.07 instead reaches people based on Missouri domicile or residence at one of three specified times, without requiring a listed act.
Rule 54.07 itself does not contain the subject-matter limitation that Rule 54.06(c) places on long-arm claims; it addresses jurisdiction over the person based on domicile or residence, not a specific qualifying act.