If the defendant upon whom process has been served fails to appear and defend in the time required by law, the bill may be taken for confessed; or the complainant may proceed by process of contempt to compel an answer.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 21-1-301
Procedure on defendant's failure to appear
Code 1858, § 4360 (deriv
Current official text: Tennessee Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Tennessee statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.