Texas Supreme Court weighs which address counts for substitute service in Huffman Asset Management v. Coulter

The Supreme Court of Texas heard argument in Huffman Asset Management v. Coulter over whether the Business Organizations Code’s instruction to forward process to the “most recent address of the entity on file with the secretary of state” refers to an entity’s principal office address or to the registered agent/registered office. Petitioners’ counsel told the justices the statutory change—enacted in the Business Organizations Code and effective after its 2003 enactment (effective 2006)—moved the forwarding rule away from the registered agent/registered office toward the entity’s most recent public filing.

Why it matters: The court’s construction affects when plaintiffs may use the secretary of state for substitute service and plaintiffs’ ability to secure default judgments without personal service. Counsel for the petitioners argued that the shift in wording was intentional and that the secretary of state and the…