§ 17.023.Service on Joint-Stock Association

A service provision for an old business form that Texas law still accommodates.

Citation may be served by serving an officer — the president, vice-president, secretary, cashier, assistant cashier, or treasurer; by serving the local agent of the association in the county where the suit is brought; or by leaving a copy of the citation at the principal office during office hours.

The third method is notable. It requires no person at all — leaving the citation at the principal office during business hours completes service. That is unusual, and it addresses an association whose officers are dispersed or unidentified.

Subsection (b) is the fallback. If no officer on whom citation may be served resides in the county of suit and the association has no agent there, citation may be served on any agent representing the association in this state. The geographic limit drops away when the local options are exhausted.

The list of officers reads as of its era — "cashier" and "assistant cashier" belong to a period when the joint-stock association was a common commercial form. The section was last amended in 1987 and remains available for the entities that still use it.