Chap. 330.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4042, contained in chapter
159 of the Code of Virginia, in relation to telegraph and telephone com-
panics. [S B 219]

Approved March 20, 1922.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion forty hundred and forty-two (4042) of the Code of Virginia, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 4042. Receipt and transmission of dispatches.—It shall be
the duty of every telegraph company and of every telephone com-
pany doing the business of transmitting and receiving messages for
compensation in this State to receive dispatches and messages from
and for other telephone or telegraph companies or lines doing the
business of receiving and transmitting méssages for compensation,
and from and for any person; and upon the payment of the estab-
lished charges therefor, if demanded, to transmit the same faithfully
and impartially, and as promptly as practicable, and in the order of
delivery to the said company. For every failure to transmit a dis-
patch or message faithfully and impartially, and for every failure
to transmit or deliver a dispatch or message as promptly as practi-
cable, or in the order of its delivery to the company, the company
shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars to the person sending or wish-
ing to send such dispatch or message, or the person to whom such
ditpatch is addressed, or such message is to be sent; provided, how-
ever, not more than one recovery shall be had on one dispatch or
message, and the recovery of one party entitled thereto shall be a
bar to the recovery of the other party. But nothing herein shall
prevent any such company from giving preference to dispatches or
messages on official business from or to officers of the United States
or the State of Virginia, or from making arrangements with proprie-
tors or publishers of newspapers for the transmission to them for
publication of intelligence of general and public interest out of its
regular order.