§ 17.026.Service on Secretary of State

A procedural convenience with wide practical reach, because the secretary of state is the statutory agent for so many defendants.

In an action in which citation may be served on the secretary of state, service may be made by certified mail, return receipt requested, by the clerk of the court in which the case is pending, or by the party or the party's representative.

Three permissible senders, which matters in practice — a plaintiff need not depend on the clerk's schedule, and may send the process itself and hold the return receipt.

Subsection (b) makes the method additional. It is in addition to any other method authorized by statute or the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure for service on the secretary of state, so the older methods remain available.

The section is used most often with the long-arm provisions later in this chapter, under which the secretary of state becomes the agent for a nonresident who has no registered agent, and with the delinquent tax provision in Subchapter E.

Serving the secretary is only the first step. The secretary must then forward the process to the defendant, and that forwarding is what supplies the notice the Constitution requires.