(a) Every transient retailer shall file with the application required by § 4705 of this title the name and permanent address of such retailer's registered agent. (b) Such registered agent shall be a resident of Delaware and shall be an agent of such transient retailer upon whom any legal process permitted by law to be served upon the transient retailer may be served. (c) The registered agent shall agree in writing to act as such agent and a copy of the agreement shall be filed with the application. (d) The Director of Revenue shall maintain an alphabetical record of all transient retailers and the names and addresses of their registered agents. (e) Whenever a transient retailer doing business or having done business in this State shall fail to have or maintain a registered agent in the State, or whenever any such registered agent cannot with due diligence be found at the registered agent's permanent address, the Director of Revenue shall be an agent of such transient retailer upon whom any such legal process may be served. Service on the Director of Revenue of such legal process with the fee of $4.00 shall be made in the same manner as is provided by law for service of writs of summons and when so made shall be as effectual to all intents and purposes as if made personally upon the defendant within this State; provided, that not later than 7 days following the filing of the return of service of process in the court in which the civil action is commenced or following the filing with the court of the proof of the nonreceipt of notice provided for in subsection (h) of this section, the plaintiff or a person acting in the plaintiff's behalf shall send by registered mail to the transient retailer a notice consisting of a copy of the process and complaint served upon the Director of Revenue and the statement that service of the original of such process has been made upon the Director of Revenue of this State, and that under this section such service is as effectual to all intents and purposes as if it had been made upon such transient retailer personally within this State. (f) Proof of the mailing and receipt or refusal of the notice shall be made in such manner as the court, by rule or otherwise, shall direct. (g) The return receipt or other official proof of delivery shall constitute presumptive evidence that the notice mailed was received by the transient retailer or the retailer's agent, and the notation of refusal shall constitute presumptive evidence that the refusal was by the transient retailer or the retailer's agent. (h) The plaintiff or plaintiff's counsel of record in the action may within 7 days following the return of any undelivered notice mailed in accordance with subsection (e) of this section other than a notice, delivery of which is shown by the notation of the postal authorities on the original envelope to have been refused by the transient retailer or the retailer's agent, file with the court in which the civil action is commenced proof of the nonreceipt of the notice by the transient retailer or the retailer's agent, which proof shall consist of the usual receipt given by the post office at the time of mailing to the person mailing the registered article containing the notice, the original envelope of the undelivered registered article and an affidavit made by or on behalf of plaintiff specifying: (1) The date upon which the envelope containing the notice was mailed by registered mail; (2) The date upon which the envelope containing the notice was returned to the sender; (3) That the notice provided for in subsection (e) of this section was contained in the envelope at the time it was mailed; and (4) That the receipt, obtained at the time of mailing by the person mailing the envelope containing the notice, is the receipt filed with the affidavit. (i) The time in which defendant shall serve an answer shall be computed from the date of the mailing of the registered letter which is the subject of the return receipt or other official proof of delivery or the notation of refusal of delivery; provided, however, that the court in which the action is pending may, at any time before or after the expiration of the prescribed time for answering, order such continuances as may be necessary to afford the defendant therein reasonable opportunity to defend the action. (j) Nothing herein contained limits or affects rights to serve process in any other manner now or hereafter provided by law. This section is an extension of and not a limitation upon the rights otherwise existing of service of legal process upon nonresidents.
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