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TENNESSEE STATUTES AND CODES
20-2-205 - Service on secretary of state.
20-2-205. Service on secretary of state.
(a) Service of process under § 20-2-203 shall be made by lodging, by the plaintiff or the plaintiff's attorney, the original summons and a copy certified by the clerk of the court in which action is brought, with a fee of twenty dollars ($20.00), with the secretary of state, who shall promptly send, postage prepaid, the certified copy by registered or certified return receipt mail to the defendant, along with a written notice that service was so made.
(b) In case it appears, either before or after the lodging of process, as provided in subsection (a), that the nonresident is dead, then either original or alias process may issue, directed to the personal representative of the nonresident deceased and shall be sent, as provided in subsection (a), to the probate court of the county and state of the residence of the deceased at the time of the deceased's death. No appearance need be made nor shall judgment be taken against the personal representative until the lapse of sixty (60) days from the date of mailing the process to such probate court. The procedure for mailing such process and proof of service of process shall be as provided in this section and in § 20-2-206 for the service upon living persons.
(c) The fee of twenty dollars ($20.00) so paid by the plaintiff, when fact of payment is endorsed on the original process by the secretary of state, shall be taxed as plaintiff's cost, to abide the judgment.
(d) In case delivery of process so made by registered or certified mail is refused by the addressee of the process, such refusal to be evidenced by appropriate notation of such fact by the postal authorities, the refusal shall be deemed the equivalent of delivery and adequately constitutes service.
(e) Acceptance of the registered or certified mail by any member of the addressee's family, over sixteen (16) years of age and residing in the same dwelling with the addressee, shall constitute a sufficient delivery of the mail to the addressee.
[Code 1932, §§ 8672, 8675; Acts 1949, ch. 47, § 3; C. Supp. 1950, § 8672; Acts 1955, ch. 265, § 2; 1971, ch. 332, § 1; 1980, ch. 656, §§ 1, 2; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 20-226; Acts 1998, ch. 890, § 7.]