§ 15.006.Venue Determined by Facts Existing at the Time of Accrual

One sentence that removes an entire category of manoeuvring: the court determines venue based on the facts existing at the time the cause of action accrued.

Residence, principal office, and the location of relevant conduct are all measured as of accrual. A defendant who relocates after the events, or a company that closes its Texas office, changes nothing about where suit may be brought.

The rule protects both sides. A plaintiff cannot manufacture venue by moving to a preferred county before filing, and a defendant cannot destroy it by leaving.

It also means venue is knowable at the moment the claim arises, which matters for a plaintiff filing near the end of a limitations period who cannot afford a transfer fight.

Accrual is doing the work, and the section does not define it. When a cause of action accrues is answered by the limitations chapter and the case law under it — generally when the wrongful act causes injury, subject to the discovery rule where it applies. A claim whose accrual date is contested therefore has a contested venue date as well.

The section says nothing about a corporate defendant that did not exist at accrual, or about a successor entity. Those questions turn on which entity is properly a defendant, not on this rule.

One practical consequence: the facts that fix venue are the same facts a plaintiff must plead. Because a venue hearing is decided on pleadings and affidavits rather than live testimony, the accrual-date facts should appear in the petition rather than being saved for a hearing.