Title 39, Title 39 Utilities and Carriers

Notice of the time and place for a hearing and investigation shall be given to the public utility and to such other interested persons as the division shall deem necessary, as provided in § 39-4-5, and thereafter the proceedings shall be had and conducted in reference to the matt…

The division shall cause a certified copy of all its orders to be served upon an officer or agent of the public utility affected thereby, and upon the complainant if any there be, and all orders shall of their own force take effect and become operative ten (10) days after service…

The public utilities administrator may, at any time, upon notice to the public utility and after opportunity to be heard as provided in § 39-4-5, rescind, alter, or amend any order fixing any rate, toll, charge, joint rate or rates, or any other order made by the public utilities…

All orders, decisions, requests, or ordinances hereafter made by any town or city council under the provisions of §§ 39-8-2, 39-8-3, and 39-8-12, shall be subject to the supervision and control of the division as provided in this section. Upon the written complaint of any public …

Whenever the commission shall find upon a hearing and an investigation that the plant or equipment of any public utility is inadequate, insufficient, or unsuited to the public needs, or that repairs, improvements, or changes in the plant or equipment ought reasonably to be made, …

No person shall be excused from testifying or from producing any books, accounts, papers, records, or documents in any investigation or inquiry by, or upon any hearing before, the division or member thereof when ordered to do so by the division or member, upon the ground that the…

Every public utility, and all officers and agents thereof, shall obey, observe, and comply with every order of the division made under the authority of chapters 1 — 5 of this title as long as the order shall be and remain in force. Every public utility that shall violate any of t…

Whenever the division shall be of the opinion that a public utility, subject to its supervision, is failing or omitting, or about to fail or omit, to do anything required of it by law or by order of the division, or is doing anything, is about to do anything, or is permitting any…

An action to recover a penalty or forfeiture under this chapter shall be brought in any court of competent jurisdiction in this state in the name of the state, and shall be commenced and prosecuted to final judgment by the administrator. All money recovered in any action, togethe…

(a) Upon a written complaint made against any public utility by any city or town council, or by the water supply management division of the department of environmental management, or by any corporation, or by any twenty-five (25) qualified electors, that any of the rates, tolls, …

The division shall, prior to a formal hearing, notify the public utility complained of that a complaint has been made, and ten (10) days after notice has been given, the division may proceed to set a time and place for a hearing and an investigation as hereinafter provided.

The division shall give the public utility and the complainant, if any, ten (10) days’ notice of the time and place where and when the hearing and investigation will be held, and the matters considered and determined. Both the public utility and the complainant shall be entitled …

The division may, in its discretion, when complaint is made of more than one rate or charge, order separate hearings thereon, and may consider and determine the several matters complained of separately and at such time as it may prescribe. No complaint shall at any time be dismis…

In any matter within the jurisdiction of the division of public utilities and carriers, involving water rates, charges, or accommodation of the public, or the safety or potability of drinking water, and affecting the inhabitants of any particular community in any town or city, th…

Upon any hearing and investigation, the division may require the public utility to file with it a copy of any contract for the purchase of electricity, light, heat, or power, certified by its secretary or treasurer, which shall be open to inspection by the complainant or counsel …

If, upon a hearing and investigation had under the provisions of this chapter, the division shall find any existing rates, tolls, charges, or joint rate or rates of any public utility, to be unjust, unreasonable, insufficient, or unjustly discriminatory, or to be preferential or …

Any person aggrieved by a decision or order of the commission may, within seven (7) days from the date of the decision or order, petition the supreme court for a writ of certiorari to review the legality and reasonableness of the decision or order. The petition for a writ of cert…

Upon the filing of a proper petition for a writ of certiorari for review in the office of the clerk of the supreme court, the supreme court shall cause to be issued a writ of certiorari to the commission which shall require the commission within thirty (30) days to certify to the…

The findings of the commission on questions of fact shall be held to be prima facie true and as found by the commission, and the supreme court shall not exercise its independent judgment nor weigh conflicting evidence. An order or judgment of the commission made in the exercise o…

The supreme court may reverse or affirm the judgments and orders of the commission and may remand a cause to it with such mandates as law or equity shall require; and the commission shall enter judgment or order in accordance with the mandates. The transfer of the cause to the su…

If after appeal has been taken to the supreme court, new evidence shall be discovered by any party, an affidavit setting forth the newly discovered evidence shall be filed in the supreme court, and if that court finds the newly discovered evidence to be of such character and suff…

The word “railroad,” as used in chapters 6 — 9 of this title, except in § 39-6-15 and in § 39-9-11, shall be construed so as to include all so-called tramways and all other railroads operated by steam or other power.

No length of possession, user, or occupancy by a railroad corporation of land belonging to an adjoining owner shall hereafter create any right in or to adjoining land in the railroad corporation or in any person or corporation claiming under it.

Upon the application in writing of any railroad company, or of any person whose interest may be affected by the doings of the company, to the superior court for the county in which the estate affected lies, for a hearing and determination of any matter or thing whereof the superi…

Whenever any railroad company shall locate its road or any part thereof, it may file the report of the location with the clerk of the superior court for the county in which the located road is situated, and may, in writing, request the action of the court thereon according to cha…

The superior court shall have the same power and jurisdiction over the cases referred to in §§ 39-6-11 and 39-6-12 as the court of common pleas, or special courts of common pleas, or common pleas division of the supreme court, formerly had by charter or by general law.

If any person having lawful claims upon any railroad corporation for overcharge for freight or passage, or for injury or loss of merchandise, or for damage by unlawful or unwarrantable delay in the transportation or delivery of merchandise, or for injury to the person, or for the…

Any railroad company incorporated under the laws of this state and operating a railroad in this state may acquire, own, maintain, and operate, either directly or through subsidiary corporations, aircraft for the transportation of passengers and property subject to provisions of a…

Railroad corporations that are subject to the provisions of this chapter, whose roads are now operated by power other than electricity, may operate or contract for the operation of their roads with electric power, in such manner and with such changes in their roadbed or tracks as…

Railroad corporations and street railroad companies may contract that either shall perform transportation of persons and property upon and over the whole or any part of the road of the other, so far as the other has then the right by law to perform the transportation, and may con…

The facilities for travel and business on either of the roads of any corporations acting under the provisions of §§ 39-6-16 — 39-6-18 shall not be diminished by the terms or conditions of any agreement under this chapter, and copies of all contracts made under the provisions of t…

In any contract for the sale of railroad or street railway equipment or rolling stock, it shall be lawful to agree that the title to the property sold, or contracted to be sold, although possession thereof may be delivered immediately or at any time or times subsequently, shall n…

Every railroad or portion of a railroad built in this state for public use, by itself or in connection with any other railroad, without charter or license first had and obtained from the general assembly, is declared to be a public nuisance.

The contracts herein authorized shall be recorded by the secretary of state in a book of records to be kept for that purpose. And on payment in full of the purchase money, and the performance of the terms and conditions stipulated in any contract, a declaration in writing to that…

Sections 39-6-19 and 39-6-20 shall not be held to invalidate or affect in any way any contract made prior to February 21, 1893, of the kind referred to in § 39-6-19, and any contract theretofore made may, upon compliance with the provisions of §§ 39-6-19 and 39-6-20, be recorded …

Whenever any railroad corporation shall mortgage or convey in trust its railroad or railroad property, or any part thereof, to trustees, for the security of its bondholders or other creditors, or for the security of any class of bondholders or other creditors, and the trustees sh…

Whenever any railroad corporation, the charter whereof requires the directors to make an annual report to the general assembly, shall have passed into the hands of trustees, the trustees, instead of the directors, shall make the report while the road remains in their hands, which…

The franchise and property of a railroad corporation may be redeemed by it, or any mortgagee thereof, from sale on execution by paying or tendering to the purchaser the sum paid therefor at the sale, with interest, at any time within sixty (60) days after the final determination …

The purchaser of any railroad or street railway and of the property, rights, privileges, and franchises therewith connected, at a sale under a valid foreclosure of a legal mortgage thereof, or at a valid sale under the power of sale of the mortgage, or at a valid sale under the o…

Any purchaser of any railroad or street railway, and of any corresponding property, rights, privileges, and franchises, shall have the right and is hereby authorized and empowered to sell, assign, transfer, and convey all and each railroad or street railway and the property, righ…

(a) The public utilities administrator is hereby authorized to promulgate and enforce reasonable rules and regulations relating to safety, sanitation, and adequate shelter as affecting the welfare and health of railroad trainpersons, engine persons, yard persons, maintenance of w…

Whenever maintenance of way crews or employees are working in the area of double or multiple railroad tracks, the following safety precautions shall be mandatory: (1) All trains shall be notified of the location of the crews or employees by mile markers or mile posts by train ord…

(a) Every railroad corporation and railway company shall provide or make available to every member of an operating crew involved in an accident on its railway or right of way that results in loss of life or serious bodily injury, counseling services or other critical incident str…

(a) It shall be unlawful for any corporation or individual to maintain, equip, or use within the state, any railroad caboose car, a rider car, or any car used as either a caboose car or rider car, unless the car is equipped with suitable and adequate water supply to provide for s…

In addition to the remedy by indictment for the nuisance, the attorney general shall, for the purpose of abating any nuisance, file on the part of the state, in the superior court, a civil action or information against any person or corporation who or that shall build any railroa…

As a condition of his or her approval of any abandonment of railroad facilities, not including a relocation by a carrier or carriers by railroad subject to the provisions of this title, the public utilities administrator shall require a fair and equitable arrangement to protect t…