§ 17.066.Return

A recordkeeping requirement that the subchapter’s deadlines depend on.

An officer who serves process on the chairman shall state on his return the day and hour of service and any other facts required generally for returns of service of citation.

The hour is the unusual part. Ordinary returns of citation record the date; this subchapter asks for the time of day as well.

The reason is the default judgment provision, which bars a default before the 21st day after the day on which the chairman was served. A return that fixes the moment of service precisely leaves no room for argument about when the 21 days began, in a proceeding where the defendant is by definition absent and unable to point out an error.

The second half incorporates the general requirements, so nothing about ordinary return practice is displaced — the identity of the officer, the manner of service, and the other facts a return must show are all still required.

The return is the record on which everything else rests. A default judgment under this subchapter is granted on the strength of the papers, and a defective return is a standard route to setting one aside.

Texas has traditionally required strict compliance with service provisions before a default judgment will stand, and a return omitting what this section requires is an obvious target.

Read it with the return-of-service provision earlier in the chapter, which sets the general requirements this section builds on.