- Consolidated Laws - Transportation Corporations
ARTICLE 2
GAS AND ELECTRIC CORPORATIONS
Section 10. Definitions.
11. Powers.
12. Gas and electricity must be supplied on application.
15. Refusal or neglect to pay rent.
16. No rent for meters to be charged.
17. Construction over Indian reservation.
S 10. Definitions. A gas corporation is a corporation organized to
manufacture, to produce or otherwise acquire and to supply for public
use artificial or natural gas or a mixture of both gases for light, heat
or power and for lighting the streets and public and private buildings
of cities, villages and towns in this state. An electric corporation is
a corporation organized to manufacture, to produce or otherwise acquire,
and to supply for public use electricity for light, heat or power, and
for lighting streets, avenues, public parks and places and public and
private buildings of cities, villages and towns within this state. A gas
and electric corporation is a corporation organized for purposes of both
a gas corporation and an electric corporation.
S 11. Powers. Every such corporation shall have the following powers:
1. A gas corporation and a gas and electric corporation shall have power
to manufacture gas, and to acquire natural or artificial gas and to mix
the gases and to sell and furnish gas for light, heat or power; and to
lay conductors for gas in the streets, highways and public places, in
each city, village and town in the county or counties named in its
certificate of incorporation, with the consent of the municipal
authorities of such city, village or town, and under such reasonable
regulations as they may prescribe.
2. Every corporation having authority under any general or special law
or under any charter or franchise, to lay down, erect or maintain pipes,
conduits, ducts or other fixtures in, over or under the streets,
highways and public places of any municipality for the purpose of
furnishing or distributing natural gas, may acquire and supply for
public use artificial gas.
Where any gas corporation is serving natural gas under permits or
franchises permitting the laying or maintaining of mains or pipes and
conveying natural gas, and the supply of natural gas has become
inadequate or insufficient to give reasonable service to consumers in
the municipalities served by it, such gas corporation may supply
artificial gas or a mixture of natural and artificial gases under such
permits or franchises.
3. An electric corporation and a gas and electric corporation shall
have power to generate, acquire and supply electricity for heat or power
in cities, towns and villages within this state, and to light the
streets, highways and public places thereof, and the public and private
buildings therein; and to make, sell or lease all machines, instruments,
apparatus and other equipments therefor, and for transmitting and
distributing electricity, to lay, erect and construct suitable wires or
other conductors, with the necessary poles, pipes or other fixtures in,
on, over and under the streets, avenues, public parks and places in such
cities, towns or villages, with the consent of the municipal authorities
thereof, and in such manner and under such reasonable regulations, as
they may prescribe.
3-a. An electric corporation and a gas corporation shall have power
and authority to acquire such real estate as may be necessary for its
corporate purposes and the right of way through any property in the
manner prescribed by the eminent domain procedure law.
3-b. The construction, use and maintenance by an electric corporation
of transmission, distribution and service lines and wires in, over or
under any street, highway or public place and the construction, use and
maintenance by a gas corporation of transmission, distribution and
service pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures in, over or under any
trees, highway or public place, as may be necessary for its corporate
purposes, are hereby declared to be public uses and purposes.
Where any person or corporation other than the state, a political
subdivision thereof, or a municipality is the owner of any right, title
or interest in or to any street, highway or public place, or in or to
the land on which the street, highway or public place is located, an
electric corporation or a gas corporation is hereby authorized and
empowered to acquire the right to construct, use and maintain such lines
or wires and such pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures, in, over or
under such street, highway or public place, from such owner or owners,
by petition in the manner prescribed by section four hundred two of the
eminent domain procedure law to the supreme court in the county in which
such street, highway or public place is situated. The corporation shall
file with the court a certificate of the public service commission
certifying that the right sought to be acquired is necessary and in the
public interest and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence as to
the matters lawfully certified therein.
After a hearing on such petition and any answer thereto, if the court
shall find that such right to construct, use and maintain is necessary
for the corporate purposes of the corporation, it shall enter its
judgment adjudging that such right is necessary for the public use and
that the corporation is entitled to construct, use and maintain its
lines or wires or pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures in, over or
under such street, highway or public place and adjudging pursuant to the
eminent domain procedure law the compensation to be made by the
corporation to the owner or owners.
4. Any two or more domestic gas corporations, electric corporations,
gas and electric corporations, and any other domestic corporation formed
for the purpose of engaging in any business in which domestic gas
corporations, electric corporations or gas and electric corporations may
engage, may merge or consolidate in accordance with the procedure and
with the effect set forth in article nine of the business corporation
law.
5. A corporation mentioned in this article or incorporated under or by
any general or special law of this state for the purpose of supplying
for public use electricity for light, heat or power in cities, towns or
villages in this state, upon filing a certificate of amendment therefor,
to which is annexed the consent required by section one hundred and
eleven of this chapter, shall have all the rights, privileges and powers
and be subject to all the restrictions of district steam corporations.
6. The term "municipal authorities" as used in subdivisions one and
three of this section, shall be deemed to be the local legislative body
of a city, the board of trustees of a village and the town board of a
town. All consents in writing for the doing of acts mentioned in such
subdivisions given before April fourteenth, nineteen hundred and
twenty-two, in writing by the highway commissioners or town
superintendent of highways or the town board of any town to any
corporation organized under the provisions of this article shall be
deemed to be the consents of the municipal authorities required by this
section.
S 12. Gas and electricity must be supplied on application. Except in
the case of an application for residential utility service pursuant to
article two of the public service law, upon written application of the
owner or occupant of any building within one hundred feet of any main of
a gas corporation or gas and electric corporation, or a line of an
electric corporation or gas and electric corporation, appropriate to the
service requested, and payment by him of all money due from him to the
corporation, it shall supply gas or electricity as may be required for
lighting such building, notwithstanding there be rent or compensation in
arrears for gas or electricity supplied, or for meter, wire, pipe or
fittings furnished, to a former occupant thereof, unless such owner or
occupant shall have undertaken or agreed with the former occupant to pay
or to exonerate him from the payment of such arrears, and shall refuse
or neglect to pay the same; and if for the space of ten days after such
application, and the deposit of a reasonable sum as provided in the next
section, if required, the corporation shall refuse or neglect to supply
gas or electric light as required, such corporation shall forfeit and
pay to the applicant the sum of ten dollars, and the further sum of five
dollars for every day thereafter during which such refusal or neglect
shall continue; provided that no such corporation shall be required to
lay service pipes or wires for the purpose of supplying gas or electric
light to any applicant where the ground in which such pipe or wire is
required to be laid shall be frozen, or shall otherwise present serious
obstacles to laying the same; nor unless the applicant, if required,
shall deposit in advance with the corporation a sum of money sufficient
to pay the cost of his proportion of the pipe, conduit, duct or wire
required to be installed, and the expense of the installation of such
portion.
S 15. Refusal or neglect to pay rent. If any person supplied with gas
or electric light by any such corporation, except residential customers
supplied pursuant to article two of the public service law shall neglect
or refuse to pay the rent or remuneration due for the same or for the
wires, pipes or fittings let by the corporation, for supplying or using
such gas or electric light or for ascertaining the quantity consumed or
used as required by his contract with the corporation, or shall refuse
or neglect, after being required so to do, to make the deposit required,
such corporation may discontinue the supply of gas or electric light to
the premises of such person; and the officers, agents or workmen of such
corporation may enter into or upon such premises between the hours of
eight o`clock in the forenoon and six o`clock in the afternoon, and
separate and carry away any meter, pipe, fittings, wires or other
property of such corporation, and may disconnect any meter, pipe,
fittings, wires or other works whether the property of the corporation
or not, from the mains, pipes or wires of the corporation. But the
supply of gas or electric light shall not be discontinued for
non-payment of bills rendered for service until and after a five-day
written notice has been served upon such person either by delivering the
same to such person personally or by mailing the same in post-paid
wrapper addressed to such person at premises where service is rendered.
S 16. No rent for meters to be charged. No gas corporation, electric
corporation or gas and electric corporation directly or indirectly shall
charge or collect rent on its gas meters, and any person, or corporation
violating this provision shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars
for each offense, to be sued for and recovered in the corporate name of
the city, town or village where the violation occurs, in any court
having jurisdiction, and when collected to be paid into the treasury of
such city, town or village and to constitute a part of the contingent or
general fund thereof.
S 17. Construction over Indian reservation. A gas corporation, an
electric corporation or a gas and electric corporation may contract with
the chiefs of any nation of Indians over whose lands it may be necessary
to construct its gas or electric lines for the right to construct such
lines upon such lands, but no such contract shall vest in the
corporation the fee of such lands nor the right to occupy the same for
any purpose other than for the construction, operation and maintenance
of such lines, nor shall such contract be valid or effectual until the
same has been ratified by the county court of the county in which the
lands are situated and approved by the public service commission
pursuant to section sixty-eight of the public service commission law.
