§ 15.088.Nonresident; Residence Unknown

The provision for the defendant the residence rule cannot locate.

A suit against a nonresident of this state or against a person whose residence is unknown may be brought in the county and precinct in which the plaintiff resides.

Two unlike defendants, one answer. A nonresident has a residence, just not in Texas. A person of unknown residence may live next door. In both cases the general rule yields nothing, so the section falls back on the one residence the court can always identify — the plaintiff's.

That is a notable departure. Almost nothing else in this subchapter lets a plaintiff sue at home, and this section does it twice over.

"Residence is unknown" is doing real work and invites abuse, which is why the pleading requirement matters here more than anywhere. A pleading filed outside the defendant's home county or precinct must affirmatively show the suit comes within an exception — so a plaintiff relying on this section must say so on the face of the pleading, and can be challenged on it.

Unknown means unknown after reasonable inquiry, not merely unrecorded in the plaintiff's file. A defendant who is in fact locatable can contest venue and show it.

The transient person provision covers the neighbouring case of a defendant with no fixed residence at all, and the archaic single-man provision covers the one who boards.