Are you having difficulty finding the defendant in a motor vehicle case so that you can serve the summons and complaint? This statute can be used to require the defendant’s insurance company to tell you what it knows about how the defendant can be found if the condition precedent of the statute is satisfied.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 56-7-1104. Service of process; demand notice to liability insurer
(a) Upon a sheriff’s return of “not to be found” within the particular county, or upon the secretary of state being unable to complete process upon the defendant or defendants, the plaintiff may serve demand notice upon the liability insurance carrier to reveal the location and whereabouts of the defendant automobile owner or operator.
(b) If the carrier is not a domestic company, the demand notice shall be through the commissioner. The demand notice shall be by certified mail with a return receipt requested and shall include a certified copy of the sheriff’s return.
(c) The liability insurance carrier shall, upon notice, reveal to the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s attorney any information it possesses as to the location of the defendant automobile operator or owner.
Novack v. Fowler, No. W2011–01371–COA–R9–CV, 2012 WL 403881, at *9 (Tenn.Ct.App. Feb. 9, 2012) stands for the proposition that “the obligation to inform plaintiff’s counsel of the defendant’s address is only triggered when the summons has been returned “not to be found.” This opinion also states that “an attorney has no affirmative duty “to inform the opposing party of relevant facts or law,” including the address of his or her client. Tenn. Sup.Ct. R. 8, RPC 4.1 cmt. 1 (2011); see also Reeder v. Knapik, No. 07–CV–362–L(LSP), 2007 WL 1521100, at * 1 (S.D.Cal. May 22, 2007) (construing a similar evasion rule and noting that ‘a defendant has no duty or obligation to plaintiff to assist in the service of the complaint’).”