Chap. 556.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section | 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 27, 1914, as amended by an act
approved March 23, 1918, and as amended by an act approved March 20,
1924, [SB 336]

Approved March 29, 1926.

1. Beit 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, as
amended by act approved March twenty-third, nineteen hundred and
eighteen, as amended by an act approved March twentieth, nineteen
hundred and twenty-four, be amended and re-enacted so as to read
as follows:

Section 4965. Public utilities to file schedules of rates and
charges.—(a) Every public utility shall be required to file with the
State corporation commission and to keep open to public inspection,
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, in-
cluding 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,
934 . ACTS OF ASSEMBLY. [va.

or by filing new schedules in lieu thereof not less than thirty days
prior to the time the same are to take effect; provided, that the com-
mission may, in particular cases, authorize or prescribe a less time in
which changes may be made; and further, provided, that the com-
mission, 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 reasonableness 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 reasonable. Notice of the suspension of any pro-
posed rate, toll, charge, rule or regulation shall be given by the com-
mission to the public utility, prior to the expiration of the thirty days’
notice‘ to the commission and the public, heretofore provided for.

If the commission, in exceptional cases, is unable to conclude its
investigations and hearing 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 pro-
posed rates, tolls, charges, rules or regulations for such moderate and
reasonable periods as may be requisite and necessary to complete the
investigation; provided, however, such periods of further suspension
shall not exceed ten 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 security ap-
proved by the commission, payable to the commonwealth and sufh-
cient in amount and security and adequate in form and conditions, to
insure the prompt refund by the public utility to those entitled thereto,
of all amounts which such public utility may collect 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 just and proper. Upon the execution
and filing of such bond, satisfactory to the commission, the suspension
shall immediately cease and determine, and the said proposed sched-
ule of rates, tolls, charges, rules and regulations shall thereupon be-
come effective. And in such case the commission may require the
public utility to keep such 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, together with the names and addresses of persons to whom
the overcharges will be refundable in case the schedule filed by the
public utility be not finally approved and sustained by the court of
appeals. 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.

But this paragraph is subject to the following qualification, that
if any public utility furnishing water to any city having a population
of more than fifty thousand, according to the last census or the in-
habitants thereof shall desire to put into effect such rate, pending such
appeal, then upon application to the commission, made after such
notice to such parties as the commission may direct, the commission
may enter an order permitting such public utility to put into effect
the rate filed, pending such appeal.

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 speci-
fied in the schedule, subject, however, to the power of the commission,
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, nineteen 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 and
not engaged in a similar business, and to charge uniformly therefor
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 to
schedules of rates, or contracts for service rendered by any such com-
pany, to any municipal corporation, or to the State or federal govern-
ment.

(c) From any action of the commission in prescribing rates,
charges, rules and regulations or changes thereof, an appeal may be
taken by the corporation whose rates, tolls, charges, rules and regu-
lations or changes thereof are affected, or by any person deeming
himself aggrieved by such action or if allowed by law by the common-
wealth in the manner prescribed in section one hundred and fifty-six
of the Constitution of nineteen hundred and two for appeals from
actions of the commission prescribing rates, charges or classifications
of trafhe affecting transportation and transmission companies. The
power of the corporation commission over the rates of telephone com-
panies shall be as defined by an act approved March thirteenth,
nineteen hundred and fourteen, entitled an act to provide for the
supervision and control of telephone companies by the State corpora-
tion commission.

2. The provisions of this act shall apply to cases now pending
before the State corporation commission as well as to any that may
hereafter be instituted.

3. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
passage.