By Oliveira                                           H.B. No. 2788
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to actual and constructive notices to nonresidents served
    1-3  with process.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 17.045, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
    1-6  is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 17.045.  Notice to Nonresident.  (a)  If the secretary
    1-8  of state is served with duplicate copies of process for a
    1-9  nonresident, he shall require a statement of the name and address
   1-10  of the nonresident's home or home office and shall immediately mail
   1-11  a copy of the process to the nonresident.
   1-12        (b)  If the secretary of state is served with process under
   1-13  Section 17.044(a)(3), he shall immediately mail a copy of the
   1-14  process to the nonresident (if an individual), to the person in
   1-15  charge of the nonresident's business, or to a corporate officer (if
   1-16  the nonresident is a corporation).
   1-17        (c)  If the person in charge of a nonresident's business is
   1-18  served with process under Section 17.043, a copy of the process and
   1-19  notice of the service must be immediately mailed to the nonresident
   1-20  or the nonresident's principal place of business.
   1-21        (d)  The process or notice must be sent by registered mail or
   1-22  by certified mail, return receipt requested.
   1-23        (e)  If the secretary of state is served with duplicate
    2-1  copies of process as an agent for a person who is a nonresident
    2-2  administrator, executor, heir, guardian, or personal representative
    2-3  of a nonresident, the secretary shall require a statement of the
    2-4  person's name and address and shall immediately mail a copy of the
    2-5  process to the person.
    2-6        (f)  Nothing in this section shall be construed to invalidate
    2-7  a default judgment if it shall be proved that the person against
    2-8  whom such judgment was taken had received actual or constructive
    2-9  notice of the lawsuit at least 20 days prior to the date of entry
   2-10  of the default judgment.  The trial court is authorized to conduct
   2-11  an evidentiary hearing after the default judgment is taken to make
   2-12  this determination up to 180 days after the judgment is signed.
   2-13  Out of state defendants with no registered agents in the State of
   2-14  Texas who have entered into written agreements in Texas which
   2-15  designate a specific address for service shall be deemed to have
   2-16  received sufficient notice upon compliance by the secretary of
   2-17  state with subsection (d) of this section at the address specified
   2-18  as provided in the agreement.
   2-19        SECTION 2.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
   2-20  and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three separate
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-24  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-25  passage, and it is so enacted.