§ 140B.054.Service; Proof of Service

Service, in three subsections that apply equally to demands and to the petitions that contest or enforce them.

An individual is served by delivering a duly executed copy, or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, at their residence or principal office or place of business.

Anyone other than a natural person is served by delivery to a person to whom delivery would be appropriate under state law if the demand or petition were process in a civil suit.

Borrowing the process rules is what makes the subchapter workable against businesses, since those rules already answer who may be served for a corporation, a partnership, an association or a foreign entity.

It also imports their protections. A demand delivered to someone who could not be served with citation has not been served, whatever the recipient knew about it.

Proof is a verified return by the individual who served it, setting forth the manner of service — and where service was by mail, the return must be accompanied by the return post office receipt.

The mail route is conditional on that receipt. Ordinary mail will not serve a demand, and a return unaccompanied by the receipt does not prove service.

Whether service was good is worth checking before responding, and more so under this chapter than the older one. Demands here issue from many offices with different practices, and every consequence that follows — the objection deadline, the compliance duty, the enforcement petition — is measured from the date of service.