Whenever any person, including any nonresident of this state, engages in conduct prohibited or made actionable by this division or by any regulation or order issued under this division, whether or not the person has filed a consent to service of process under Section 31113, and if personal jurisdiction over the person cannot otherwise be obtained in this state, that conduct shall be considered equivalent to the person’s appointment of the commissioner and the commissioner’s successor from time to time in office to be the person’s attorney to receive service of any lawful process in any noncriminal judicial or administrative proceeding against him or her, or his or her successor, executor, or administrator, which grows out of that conduct and which is brought under this division or under any regulation or order issued under this division, with the same force and validity as if served on him or her personally. Service may be made by leaving a copy of the process in any office of the commissioner, but the service is not effective unless (a) the party making the service, who may be the commissioner, forthwith sends notice of the service and a copy of the process by registered or certified mail to the party served at his or her last known address or takes other steps which are reasonably calculated to give actual notice, and (b) an affidavit of compliance with this section by the party making service is filed in the case on or before the return date, if any, or within such further time as the court, in the case of a judicial proceeding, or the administrative agency, in the case of an administrative proceeding, allows.
(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 1064, Sec. 642. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative July 1, 1997.)