(a) The registered agent of a foreign business or nonprofit corporation authorized to transact business in this State is the corporation's agent for service of process, notice, or demand required or permitted by law to be served on the foreign corporation.

(b) A foreign business or nonprofit corporation may be served under Rule 4(d)(8) of the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the office of the registered agent, or office of the secretary of the foreign corporation at its principal office shown in its application for a certificate of authority or in its most recent annual report. Service is effective upon the date of delivery as shown on the return receipt. Entry of default and default judgments shall be subject to the conditions of Rule 4(d)(8).

(c) If the foreign business or nonprofit corporation:

(1) has no registered agent or its registered agent cannot be served with reasonable diligence by other means authorized by rule or statute, other than under Section 15-9-710 service by publication;

(2) has withdrawn from transacting business in this State as provided by law; or

(3) has had its certificate of authority revoked as provided by law, and such appears by affidavit, the court or judge, the clerk of court of common pleas, or the master may grant an order that the corporation may be served by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the office of the secretary of the corporation at its principal office. The summons shall state the date it was mailed under this subsection and that service is perfected five days after its deposit in the United States mail.

(d) Service is perfected under subsection (c) five days after its deposit in the United States mail, as evidenced by the postmark, or other evidence of the date the summons and complaint was mailed pursuant to this subsection, if mailed postpaid and correctly addressed to the address of the company's principal office which is listed on the filed annual report of a business corporation or listed on the last filed notice of change of principal office for a nonprofit corporation (or in its application for certificate of authority if no annual report or notice of change of principal office has ever been filed).

(e) This section does not prescribe the only means, or necessarily the required means, of serving a foreign business or nonprofit corporation.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 10-424; 1952 Code Section 10-424; 1942 Code Section 7765; 1932 Code Section 7765; Civ. C. '22 Section 4029; Civ. C. '12 Section 2665; Civ. C. '02 Section 1780; R. S. 1466; 1893 (21) 409; 1922 (32) 1023; 1933 (38) 486; 1964 (53) 1830; 1981 Act No. 146, Section 5; 1988 Act No. 444, Section 3; 1993 Act No. 42, Section 2; 1994 Act No. 384, Section 3.