§ 17.065.Failed Substituted Service

The route that remains when the mail fails, and it addresses refusal as well as non-delivery.

If notice of service on the chairman cannot be effected by registered or certified mail, or if the nonresident or agent refuses to accept delivery, the plaintiff may have the defendant personally served with a certified copy of the process and a notice stating that the chairman has been served and the date on which he was served.

Refusal is expressly covered, which forecloses the obvious evasion. A defendant who declines the certified letter does not defeat service; they invite personal service instead.

The return must state when it was served and on whom, and be signed under penalty of perjury by the party making the service. That requirement was added in 2011 alongside the general return-of-service reforms, replacing verification with a perjury declaration.

Subsection (c) is deliberately permissive about who may serve: any disinterested person competent to make an oath that the process and notice were served. No officer or certified process server is required — a practical necessity, since the defendant is by definition in another state.