§ 16-58-130 - Constructive service -- Warning orders.
16-58-130. Constructive service -- Warning orders.
(a) The circuit clerk shall make and file with the papers in the case an order warning the defendant to appear in the action within thirty (30) days from the time of making the order:
(1) Where it appears by the affidavit of the plaintiff, filed in the clerk's office at or after the commencement of the action, that he or she had made diligent inquiry and that it is his information and belief that the defendant:
(A) Is a foreign corporation, having no agent in this state; or
(B) Is a nonresident of this state; or
(C) Has departed from this state with intent to delay or defraud his creditors; or
(D) Has been absent from this state four (4) months; or
(E) Has left the county of his or her residence to avoid the service of a summons; or
(F) Conceals himself or herself so that a summons cannot be served upon him or her; or
(2) Where either of the facts mentioned in subdivisions (a)(1)(E) and (F) of this section is stated in the return, by the proper officer of a summons against the defendant.
(b) In an action against the heirs of a deceased person as unknown heirs or against other persons made defendants as unknown owners of any property to be divided or disposed of in the action, where it appears by the complaint that the names of the heirs, or any of them, of such other persons are unknown to the plaintiff, a warning order, as directed in subsection (c) of this section, shall be made by the clerk against the unknown heirs or owners.
(c) The court may make the warning order upon the requisite facts being satisfactorily shown by affidavit or other proof. Warning orders shall be published weekly for at least two (2) weeks. The warning order shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the court is held.
(d) A defendant against whom a warning order has been made and published, upon completion of the publication of the warning order for the two (2) weeks required by law, shall be deemed to have been constructively summoned upon the date of the making of the order.
(e) The plaintiff may, at any time before judgment, have a summons served on the defendant, if found in this state, although a warning order may have been previously entered against him. After service the case shall proceed as in other cases of actual service.
(f) No lien on the property of a defendant constructively summoned shall be created otherwise than by an attachment, as provided in Chapter III of Title VIII of the code, or by judgment. Nor shall any other defendant be restrained from paying or delivering any money or property into his hands belonging or due to the defendant, by notice endorsed on the summons, or otherwise than by attachment or judgment.