Title 58, Public Utilities, Services and Carriers

(A) It is unlawful, without proper authority, for a person to trespass upon railroad tracks. (B) A person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than two hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days.

Any such corporation may so establish sinking funds for the payment of its liabilities.

A person who wilfully discharges any kind of firearms or throws any kind of missile at or into the engine or any car of a train is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than five years.

Whoever, without right, loiters or remains within any station house of a railroad corporation or upon the platform or grounds adjacent to such station, after being requested to leave the same by any authorized railroad officer or employee, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, on…

Any person occupying an office or room in any railway station and attending to and transacting therein the business of any railroad under the charter of such railroad shall be deemed the agent of such corporation, notwithstanding he may claim to be the agent of some other person …

When a railroad laid out and constructed by one corporation is lawfully maintained and operated by another corporation, the latter shall be subject to the duties, liabilities, restrictions and other provisions as they are set forth in the General Railroad Law respecting or arisin…

All fines or forfeitures provided for or prescribed in the General Railroad Law must, unless otherwise expressly provided, be collected by an action to be brought in the name of the State against the offending person or corporation in any court of competent jurisdiction by the Of…

Any judgment under the provisions of this chapter shall be rendered against the person violating its provisions and against the corporation in whose service or under whose authority he performed such unlawful acts.

Whenever railroad cars and engines are in use on railroads and making regular passage thereon, they shall not be attached upon mesne process in any suit within forty-eight hours previous to their fixed time of departure unless the officer making such attachment shall have first d…

Whenever a railroad corporation of this State has repeatedly and wilfully violated any of the provisions of this chapter, and has been found guilty or judgment had against it within this State of the violation more than once or penalties have been recovered in penal actions for t…

No request or advice of the Commission shall impair, in any manner or degree, the legal duties and obligations of any railroad corporation or its liability for the consequence of its acts or of the neglect or mismanagement of any of its agents or servants.

This chapter shall not be so construed as to affect the right of any person injured by the violation of any law in regard to railroad corporations from prosecuting or proceeding for his private damages in any manner allowed by law.

Any railroad corporation formed under the provisions of this article shall be subject, as to the charter of such corporation, to the provisions of Section 12-401 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1962, any provision in the original charter of the company which owned or held …

A copy of such certificate, attested by the Secretary of State or his deputy, shall, in all courts and places, be evidence of the due organization and existence of such corporation and of the matters specified in such certificate.

The provisions of this chapter shall apply to all railroads and railways and to the corporations, trustees, receivers or others owning or operating them.

No ownership or shares of the capital stock of one corporation by another corporation, nor any lease, contract or other agreement between corporations or individuals shall operate as a bar to the provisions of the General Railroad Law.

Any railroad company organized under the laws of this State and operating a railroad, whether wholly within or partly within and partly without this State, under the authority of this State, or of this State and any adjoining state, may consolidate its capital stock, franchises, …

Any consolidation of railroad companies must be made under the conditions, provisions, and restrictions and with the powers in this article mentioned and contained, that is to say: (1) The directors of the several corporations proposing to consolidate may enter into a joint agree…

Upon the consolidation of any railroad company there shall be paid to the Secretary of State a fee upon the capital stock of the combined company as in the organization of a new company; provided, that credit shall be given thereon for any charter fees paid by companies forming t…

When railroad companies are consolidated under the provisions of this article a charter of incorporation for the new company so formed by such consolidation shall be issued to the owners and stockholders of the companies so consolidating or to such of them as the stockholders of …

Any stockholder of any company hereby authorized to consolidate with any other who shall refuse to convert his stock into the stock of the consolidated company may, at any time within thirty days after the adoption of the agreement of consolidation by the stockholders, as in this…

Upon the making and perfecting the agreement and act of consolidation, as provided in Section 58-17-620, and filing it, or a copy, with the Secretary of State as aforesaid, the several corporations parties thereto shall be deemed and taken to be one corporation by the name provid…

Upon the consummation of the act of consolidation all and singular the rights, privileges and franchises of each of such corporations, parties to such consolidation and all the property, real, personal and mixed, and all debts due on whatever account, as well as all stocks, subsc…

No new consolidated corporation coming into existence under this article shall thereby acquire any extraordinary rights, privileges and exemptions not enjoyed by one or more of the companies consolidating under their respective charters.

Such new company shall, as soon as convenient after such consolidation, establish such offices as may be desirable, one of which shall be at some point in this State, on the line of its road, and may change them at pleasure, giving public notice thereof in some newspaper publishe…

Railroad corporations established in this State prior to February 9, 1882, whether by special act or in conformity with the provisions of any general law, shall have the powers and privileges and be subject to the duties, liabilities, restrictions and other provisions contained i…

Suits may be brought and maintained against such new company in any of the courts of this State for all causes of action in the same manner as against other railroad companies therein.

The portion of the road of such consolidated company in this State and all its real estate and other property theretofore subject to taxation shall be subject to like taxation and assessed in the same manner, and with like effect, as the property of other railroad companies in th…

No corporations owning and controlling lines of railroad which can compete as set forth in Section 58-17-740 shall make any consolidation, amalgamation or merger of stocks or franchises or of railroads or interests and any contract or agreement for the same shall be null and void…

Nothing in this article contained shall be taken to authorize the consolidation of any company of this State with any company of any other state whose laws shall not also authorize such consolidation.

When any railroad shall be sold and conveyed by virtue of any mortgage or deed of trust or under and by virtue of any process or decree of any court of this State or of the circuit court of the United States, any company with which such railroad connects may purchase and pay for …

Except as prohibited in Section 58-17-770 and in sections 7 and 20 of article 9 of the Constitution of 1895, any railroad company created by and existing under the laws of this State may from time to time, purchase and hold the stocks or bonds of any other railroad company charte…

A railroad corporation may aid in the construction of any branch or connecting railroad within the limits of this State, whether connecting by railroad or steamboat lines, by subscribing for shares of stock in such corporation or of any steamship line connecting the terminus of s…

No person owning or operating directly or indirectly any railroad lying in whole or in part within this State or owning or controlling at the time, either solely or in connection with others, a majority of the stock of a corporation owning or controlling, by stock, ownership or o…

Any railroad company owning, leasing or operating competing railroad lines within this State in violation of law shall be subject to a penalty of one hundred dollars for every day that such competing lines are owned, leased or operated, such penalty to be recovered in any court o…

Every railroad corporation incorporated under the laws of this State shall have the benefit of every process or proceeding and be subject to all the restrictions which shall or may be provided or imposed by the laws of the State.

Every railroad company incorporated in this State shall have all the rights, powers and privileges set forth and granted in and by this chapter and be subject to all the duties, liabilities, restrictions, provisions and limitations herein contained and such rights, powers, privil…

For the purpose of raising the capital stock of any railroad company incorporated in this State it shall be lawful to open books of subscription at such times and places and under the direction of such persons as the incorporators may appoint. Such subscriptions to the capital st…

No proxy executed by a stockholder of any railroad company shall be valid unless executed and dated within six months previous to the meeting at which it is issued.

The Office of Regulatory Staff shall have, at all times, access to the list of stockholders of every corporation operating a railroad and may, in its discretion, at any time, cause the list to be copied, in whole or in part, for its own information or for the information of perso…

On the application in writing of a director or of any person or persons owning one-fiftieth part of the entire paid-in capital stock of any corporation operating a railroad or the bonds or other evidences of indebtedness of the corporation equal in amount to one-fiftieth part of …

Every stockholder in a railroad corporation, created under the Constitution of 1868 and prior to the adoption of the Constitution of 1895, shall be jointly and severally liable to the creditors thereof in an amount, besides the value of his share or shares therein, not exceeding …

All authority, power, and duties conferred by law upon the commission as to steam railways, express and telegraph lines in this State, steamboat lines, and truck lines doing business as common carriers within this State are extended and conferred upon the commission as to all int…

Any street railway corporation organized under the provisions of Chapter 15 of this Title or the charter of which may be amended hereunder, shall be authorized and empowered, upon proper application therefor, to make, produce, generate and supply light, power and heat by the mean…

No electric car shall be operated for the purpose of carrying passengers which has a flat wheel, broken window or windowpanes, broken door or door panes or a leaky roof, side or other part thereof. All corporations operating electric railways shall have and keep in constant opera…

When demand for transportation shall temporarily increase it shall be the duty of the Public Service Commission to prescribe the number and condition of cars, power, equipment, ways, means and facilities that may be reasonably necessary under the circumstances.