Public Utilities Act. Statutes of 1911, extra session. CHAPTER 14. An act to provide for the organization of the railroad commission, to define its powers and duties and the rights, remedies, powers and duties of public utilities, their officers, define its powers and duties and the rights, remedies, of patrons of public utilities, and to provide penalties for offenses by public utilities, their officers, agents and employees and by other persons and corporations, creating the "railroad commission fund" and appropriating the moneys therein to carry out the provisions of this act, and repealing the railroad commission act, approved February 10, 1911, and also repealing an act entitled "An act to amend the railroad commission act by amending section fifteen thereof relating to powers and duties of the railroad commission of the State of California, and to amend section thirtyseven thereof relating to free and reduced-rate transportation for freight and passengers," approved April 6, 1911, and all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act. [Approved December 23, 1911. Effective March 23, 1912.] The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. This act shall be known as the "Public Utilities Act" and shall apply to the public utilities and public services herein described and to the commission herein referred to. SEC. 2. (a) The term "commission," when used in this act, means the Railroad Commission of the State of California. (b) The term "commissioner," when used in this act, means one of the members of the commission. (c) The term "corporation," when used in this act, includes a corporation, a company, an association and a joint-stock association. (d) The term "person," when used in this act, includes an individual, a firm and a copartnership. (e) The term "transportation of persons," when used in this act, includes every service in connection with or incidental to the safety, comfort or convenience of the person transported and the receipt, carriage and delivery of such person and his baggage. (f) The term "transportation of property," when used in this act, includes every service in connection with or incidental to the transpor tation of property, including in particular its receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer, switching, carriage, ventilation, refrigeration, icing, dun nage, storage and handling, and the transmission of credit by express corporations. (g) The term "street railroad," when used in this act, includes every railway, and each and every branch or extension thereof, by whatsoever power operated, being mainly upon, along, above or below any street, avenue, road, highway, bridge or public place within any city and county, or city or town, together with all real estate, fixtures and personal property of every kind used in connection therewith, owned, controlled, operated or managed for public use in the transportation of persons or property; but the term "street railroad," when used in this act, shall not include a railway constituting or used as a part of a commercial or interurban railway. (h) The term "street railroad corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any street railroad for compensation within this state. (i) The term "railroad," when used in this act, includes every commercial, interurban and other railway other than a street railroad, and each and every branch or extension thereof, by whatsoever power operated, together with all tracks, bridges, trestles, rights of way, subways, tunnels, stations, depots, union depots, ferries, yards, grounds, terminals, terminal facilities, structures and equipment, and all other real estate, fixtures and personal property of every kind used in connection therewith, owned, controlled, operated or managed for public use in the transportation of persons or property. (j) The term "railroad corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any railroad for compensation within this state. (k) The term “express corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, engaged in or transacting the business of transporting any freight, merchandise or other property for compensation on the line of any common carrier or stage or auto stage line within this state. (1) The term "common carrier," when used in this act, includes every railroad corporation; street railroad corporation; express corporation; dispatch, sleeping car, dining car, drawing room car, freight, freight-line, refrigerator, oil, stock, fruit, car loaning, car renting, car loading and every other car corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, operating for compensation within this state; and every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any vessel regularly engaged in the transportation of persons or property for compensation upon the waters of this state or upon the high seas, over regular routes between points within this state. (m) The term "pipe line," when used in this act, includes all real estate, fixtures and personal property, owned, controlled, operated or managed in connection with or to facilitate the transmission, storage, distribution or delivery of crude oil or other fluid substances except water through pipe lines. (n) The term "pipe line corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any pipe line for compensation within this state. (0) The term "gas plant," when used in this act, includes all real estate, fixtures and personal property, owned, controlled, operated or managed in connection with or to facilitate the production, generation, transmission, delivery or furnishing of gas (natural or manufactured) for light, heat or power. (p) The term "gas corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any gas plant for compensation within this state, except where gas is made or produced on and distributed by the maker or producer through private property alone solely for his own use or the use of his tenants and not for sale to others. (g) The term "electric plant," when used in this act, includes all real estate, fixtures and personal property owned, controlled, operated or managed in connection with or to facilitate the production, generation, transmission, delivery or furnishing of electricity for light, heat or power, and all conduits, ducts or other devices, materials, apparatus or property for containing, holding or carrying conductors used or to be used for the transmission of electricity for light, heat or power. (r) The term "electrical corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any electric plant for compensation within this state, except where electricity is generated on or distributed by the producer through private property alone solely for his own use or the use of his tenants and not for sale to others. (s) The term "telephone line," when used in this act, includes all conduits, ducts, poles, wires, cables, instruments and appliances, and all other real estate, fixtures and personal property owned, controlled, operated or managed in connection with or to facilitate communication by telephone, whether such communication is had with or without the use of transmission wires. (t) The term "telephone corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any telephone line for compensation within this state. (u) The term "telegraph line," when used in this act, includes all conduits, ducts, poles, wires, cables, instruments and appliances, and all other real estate, fixtures and personal property owned, controlled, operated or managed in connection with or to facilitate communication by telegraph, whether such communication is had with or without the use of transmission wires. (v) The term "telegraph corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any telegraph line for compensation within this state. (w) The term "water system," when used in this act, includes all reservoirs, tunnels, shafts, dams, dikes, head-gates, pipes, flumes, canals, structures and appliances, and all other real estate, fixtures and personal property, owned, controlled, operated or managed in connection with or to facilitate the diversion, development, storage, supply, distribution, sale, furnishing, carriage, apportionment or measurement of water for power, irrigation, reclamation or manufacturing, or for municipal, domestic or other beneficial use. (x) The term "water corporation," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any water system for compensation within this state. (y) The term "vessel," when used in this act, includes every species of water craft, by whatsoever power operated, which is owned, controlled, operated or managed for public use in the transportation of persons or property. (z) The term "wharfinger," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees, appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any dock, wharf or structure used by vessels in connection with or to facilitate the receipt or discharge of freight or passengers for compensation within this state. (aa) The term "warehouseman," when used in this act, includes every corporation or person, their lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, controlling, operating or managing any building or structure in which property is regularly stored for compensation within this state, in connection with or to facil itate the transportation of property by a common carrier or vessel, or the loading or unloading of the same, other than a dock, wharf or structure, owned, operated, controlled or managed by a wharfinger. (bb) The term "public utility," when used in this act, includes every common carrier, pipe line corporation, gas corporation, electrical corporation, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation, water corporation, wharfinger and warehouseman, as those terms are defined in this section, and each thereof is hereby declared to be a public utility and to be subject to the jurisdiction, control and regulation of the commission and to the provisions of this act. SEC. 3. (a) The railroad commission shall consist of five members, who shall be appointed by the governor from the state at large; provided, that the three commissioners in office on the tenth day of October, nineteen hundred and eleven, shall serve out the term for which they were elected, and that two additional commissioners shall be appointed by the governor to hold office during the same term. Upon the expiration of said term, the term of office of each commissioner thereafter shall be six years, excepting that of the commissioners first appointed after the expiration of said term one shall be appointed to hold office until the first day of January, nineteen hundred and seventeen, two until the first day of January, nineteen hundred and nineteen, and two until the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one. The commissioners shall elect one of their number presiIdent of the commission. (b) Whenever a vacancy in the office of commissioner shall occur, the governor shall forthwith appoint a qualified person to fill the same for the unexpired term. The legislature, by a two-thirds vote of all members elected to each house, may remove any one or more of said commissioners from office for dereliction of duty or corruption or incompetency. SEC. 4. The commission shall have power to appoint as attorney to the commission an attorney at law of this state, who shall hold office during the pleasure of the commission. It shall be the right and the duty of the attorney to represent and appear for the people of the State of California and the commission in all actions and proceedings involving any question under this act or under any order or act of the commission, and, if directed to do so by the commission, to intervene, if possible, in any action or proceeding in which any such question is involved; to commence, prosecute and expedite the final determination of all actions and proceedings directed or authorized by the commission; to advise the commission and each commissioner, when so requested, in regard to all matters in connection with the powers and duties of the commission and the members thereof; and generally to |