Chap. 407.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 1 of an act entitled an
act imposing public duties on heat, light, power, water and telephone
companies, and providing for the control and regulation of such com-

panies by the State corporation commission, approved March 27, 1914.
. {[H B 344]

Approved March 23, 1918.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section one of an act entitled an act imposing public duties on heat,
light, power, water and telephone companies, and providing for the
control and regulation of such companies by the State corporation
commission, approved March twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and
fourteen, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 1. (a) Every public utility shall be required to file with
the State corporation commission and to keep open to public in-
spection, schedules showing rates and charges, either for itself, or
joint rates and charges between itself and any other public utility
or utilities. Every public utility shall file with, and as a part of,
such schedules, all rates and regulations that in any manner affect
the rates charged or to be charged. No change shall thereafter be
made in any schedule, including schedules of joint rates, so filed,
except after thirty days’ notice to the commission, and to the public,
in such manner as the commission may require, and all such changed
rates, tolls, charges, rules, and regulations shall be plainly indicated
upon existing schedules, or by filing new schedules in leu thereof
not less than thirty days prior to the time the same are to take
effect; provided, that the commission may, in particular cases, au-
thorize or prescribe a less time in which changes may be made; and
further provided, that the commission, either upon complaint or
on its own motion, may suspend the enforcement of any or all of the
proposed rates, tolls, charges, rules or regulations, for a period not
exceeding sixty days during which time it shall investigate the rea-
sonableness or justice of the proposed rates, tolls, charges, rules and
regulations and thereupon fix and order substituted therefor such
rates, tolls, charges, rules and regulations as shall be just and rea-
sonable. Notice of the suspension of any proposed rate, toll, charge,
rule or regulation shall be given by the commission to the public
utility, prior to the expiration of the thirty days’ notice to the com-
mission and the public, heretofore provided for.

If the commission, 1n exceptional cases, is unable to conclude its
investigations and hearings within the aforesaid period of sixty
days, the commission may, for good reasons shown and spread upon
the record, further suspend from time to time the operation of the
proposed rates, tolls, charges, rules or regulations for such mod-
erate and reasonable periods as may be requisite and necessary to
complete the investigation; provided, however, such periods of fur-
ther suspension shall not exceed six months.

The public utility whose schedules shall have been so filed may
appeal to the supreme court of appeals from such decision or order
as the commission may finally enter, and in case of such appeal the
public utility shall enter into a bond in the penalty and with se-
curity approved by the commission, payable to the Commonwealth
and sufficient in amount and security and adequate in form and con-
ditions, to insure the prompt refund by the public utility to those
entitled thereto, of all amounts which such public utility may col-
lect or receive in excess of such rates, tolls and charges as may be
fixed and determined by the final decision of the court of appeals.
Upon the filing of such bond the commission shall approve the
same as promptly as possible, or direct such changes in said bond
or in the security offered thereon as may to the commission seem jus
and proper. Upon the execution and filing of such bond, satisfac
tory to the commission, the suspension shall immediately cease anc
determine, and the said proposed schedule of rates, tolls, charges
rules and regulations shall thereupon become effective. And ir
such case the commission may require the public utility to keep suc
accounts and make such reports from time to time as may in the
judgment of the commission suffice to show the amounts being
charged or received by the public utility pending the appeal, to.
gether with the names and addresses of persons to whom the over.
charges will be refundable in case the schedule filed by the public
utility be not finally approved and sustained by the court of ap:
peals. Upon the final decision of such appeal, all amounts which the
appealing public utility may have collected in excess of the rates
tolls and charges authorized by such final decision, shall be promptly
refunded by the public utility to the parties entitled thereto, in such
manner and through such method of distribution as may be pre-
scribed by the commission. The commission may in its discretion
at any time after the filing of said bond require additional security.
or the filing of a bond in a larger amount, as in the judgment of
the commission the interest of the parties may reasonably require.

Unless the commission so suspends said schedule of rates, tolls.
charges, rules and regulations, or changes thereof, the same shall go
into effect as originally filed by the public utility, upon the date
specified in the schedule, subject, however, to the power of the com-
mission, upon investigation thereafter, to fix and order substituted
therefor such rate or rates, tolls, charges, rules, or regulations as
shall be just and reasonable, as provided in section seven, chapter
three hundred and forty, act approved March twenty-seventh, nine-
teen hundred and fourteen.

(b) It shall be the public duty of every public utility to furnish
reasonably adequate service and facilities at reasonable and just
rates to any person, firm or corporation along its lines desiring same
ind not engaged in a similar business, and to charge uniformly
herefor all persons or corporations using such product under like
‘conditions, and not in competition with such furnishing company.

But nothing herein contained shall be construed as applicable
o schedules of rates, or contracts for service rendered by any such
‘company, to any municipal corporation, or to the State or federal
rovernment.

(c) From any action of the commission in prescribing rates,
harges, rules and regulations or changes thereof, an appeal may be
aken by the corporation whose rates, tolls, charges, rules and regu-
ations or changes thereof are afiected, or by any person deeming
limself aggrieved by such action or if allowed by law by the Com-
nonwealth in the manner prescribed in section one hundred and
ifty-six of the Constitution of nineteen hundred and two for ap-
eals from actions of the commission prescribing rates, charges or
lassifications of traffic affecting transportation and transmission
companies. The power of the corporation commission over the rates
of telephone companies shall be as defined by an act approved March
thirteenth, nineteen hundred and fourteen, entitled an act to pro-
vide for the supervision and control of telephone companies by the
State corporation commission. (Acts nineteen hundred and fourteen,
chapter ninety-five, page one hundred and seventy-four).