No action or proceeding pending at the time the Executive Organization Act of 1973 takes effect and brought by or against any State agency whose functions, powers, and duties are transferred by the Executive Organization Act of 1973 to a principal State department shall be affected by any provision of the Executive Organization Act of 1973, but the same may be prosecuted or defended in the name of the head of the principal State department. In all such actions and proceedings, the principal State department to which the functions, powers, and duties of a State agency have been transferred shall be substituted as a party upon appropriate application to the courts. (1973, c. 476, s. 19.)