Serving the Secretary

Service on uncooperative individuals often requires a motion for substituted service. For Texas-chartered business entities, the Secretary of State is an option, and in Huffman Asset Managment v. Colter the Fifth Court rejected an argument that the Secretary is required to serve process anywhere other than the designated addresses:

Under HAM and Prairie Capital’s interpretation of section 5.253, the Secretary of State would be required to ignore an entity’s filings concerning its registered agent and registered office in favor of information contained in a more recent filing that is unrelated to service of process and does not designate or change a registered agent, registered office, or their accompanying addresses. Such an interpretation ignores the overarching requirement that corporations maintain a registered agent and registered office for service of process and keep the addresses of both updated with the Secretary of State.

No. 05-22-00779-CV (Nov. 7, 2023).