CHAPTER 151

AN ACT to prohibit failure to relinquish a telephone party line for an
emergency call; to prohibit falsely requesting another to relinquish
such a line for an emergency call; to require publication of certain
notices in telephone directories; and to provide penalties for violations.

[H 224]
Approved February 27, 1956

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. Any person who fails to relinquish a telephone party line after
he has been requested to do so to permit another to place an emergency
call, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by a fine of not more
than twenty-five dollars or by confinement in jail for not more than ten
days, or both; provided, that this section shall not apply to any person
who is himself using the telephone party line for such an emergency call.

. Any person who requests another to relinquish a telephone
party line on the pretext that he must place an emergency call, knowing
such pretext to be false, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished as
provided in § 1 hereof.

§ 3. As used in this act “telephone party line” means a subscribers’
line circuit consisting of two or more main telephone stations connected
therewith, each station with a distinctive ring or telephone number.
“Emergency call’ means a call to report a fire or summon police, or for
medical aid or ambulance service, in a situation where human life or
property are in jeopardy and the prompt summoning of aid is essential.

4. Every telephone directory distributed to the public on or after
the ninetieth day after the effective date of this act, which. lists the call-
156 ACTS’ OF ASSEMBLY [vA., 1956

ing numbers of telephones or of any telephone exchange located in this
State shall contain a notice which explains the offenses made punishable
under §§ 1 and 2 of this act, such notice to be printed in type which con-
forms with and is comparable to other type on the same page, and to be
placed in a prominent place in such directory. Any violation of this section
shall be a misdemeanor and punished as provided in § 1 hereof.