By: Hughes (Senate Sponsor - Watson) H.B. No. 1804
(In the Senate - Received from the House April 27, 2009;
April 27, 2009, read first time and referred to Committee on
Jurisprudence; April 30, 2009, reported favorably by the following
vote: Yeas 4, Nays 0; April 30, 2009, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to service of process for delinquent taxes on a
nonresident.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 17.091(a), (b), and (c), Civil Practice
and Remedies Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) In a suit to collect delinquent property taxes by the
state or a political subdivision of the state in which a person who
is a defendant in the suit is a nonresident, the secretary of state
is an agent for service of process on that defendant if the
defendant owns, has, or claims an interest in or a lien against
property in this state that is the subject of the suit. This
section applies regardless of whether the defendant has resided in
this state.
(b) Duplicate copies of the process issued by the clerk of
the court in which the suit is pending must be served on the
secretary of state not later than the 20th day before the date of
return stated in the process. The process must include the name and
address of the nonresident's home or home office. The address may
be a post office box. [Process may be served on the secretary of
state in accordance with this section for a nonresident who was a
resident at the time the cause of action accrued but has
subsequently moved.]
(c) Immediately after being served, the secretary of state
shall mail a copy of the process to the nonresident at the address
provided under Subsection (b) by certified mail, return receipt
requested, with the postage prepaid. The secretary of state shall
certify to the court that issued the process that the secretary of
state has complied with this section. [Service of process under
this section shall be made in the manner provided by this chapter
for substituted service on nonresident motor vehicle operators,
except that a copy of the process must be mailed by certified mail.]
SECTION 2. Section 17.091, Civil Practice and Remedies
Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to service of process
issued on or after the effective date of this Act. Service of
process issued before the effective date of this Act is governed by
the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this
Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.
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