poration, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation, water company, heat and refrigerating company, transportation of property or freight company, or other public service corporation subject to any of the provisions of Ownership of this Act, or who owns stocks or bonds therein, or who has any pecuniary interest therein. The creation of the Commission may be considered as evidence that in the judgment of the people of Maryland regulated monopoly in public utilities is better than destructive and expensive competition. In re Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company 2 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 211. Temporary employment by the Commission of an employee of a Gas Company to supervise for a time the practical workings of the gas plant of another company while not a violation of the letter of the law is a violation of the spirit. Opinions General Counsel 2 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 393. JURISDICTION OF THE COMMISSION. Ibid. Sec. 415. Stocks and SEC. 3. And be it further enacted by the General Assembly, That the jurisdiction, supervision, powers and Jurisdiction. duties of the Public Service Commission herein created and established shall extend under this Act: Street Railroads. 1. To railroads and street railroads lying within this Railroads and State, and to the person or corporation owning, leasing, operating or controlling the same. roads in Cities and Towns. 2. To street railroads, any portion of whose lines lie Street Railwithin any incorporated city or town within this State, containing not less than two thousand inhabitants, and to all transportation of persons or property thereon, and to the person or corporation owning, operating, controlling or leasing the said street railroads. Other Railroads Within State. Common Carriers. Gas and Electricity. Telephone and Water Companies. Transportation. Generally. Other Matters. 3. To such portion of the lines of any other railroad as lie within this State, and to the person or corporation owning, leasing, operating or controlling the same, so far as concerns the construction, maintenance, equipment, terminal facilities and local transportation facilities and local transportation of persons or property within the State. 4. To any common carrier operating or doing business within the State. 5. To the manufacture, sale or distribution of gas, natural or artificial, and electricity for light, heat and power, within the State of Maryland, and to the persons or corporation owning, leasing, operating or controlling the same; and to gas and electric plants, and to persons or corporations owning, operating, leasing or controlling the same. 6. To all telephone lines, as above defined, and all telegraph lines as above defined, and to every telephone company, and to every telegraph company, so far as said telephone and telegraph lines are and lie, and so far as said telephone companies and said telegraph companies conduct and operate such line or lines, respectively, within this State. 7. To all water companies and to the land, property, dams, water supplies, canals or power stations thereof and the operation of the same within this State. 8. To all persons, corporations or partnerships engaged in the "transportation of property or freight,” as above defined, within this State. 9. To all corporations and persons whatsoever subject to the provisions of this Act as herein defined. And to such other and further extent, and to all such other and additional matters and things, and in such fur ther respects as may herein appear, either expressly or impliedly. JURISDICTION. A foreign corporation comes under the jurisdiction of the Commission. Opinions General Counsel, 1 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 86. Where it is the duty of a street railway company to keep in repair the pavement between its tracks, the Commission has jurisdiction to investigate the condition of such pavement. Opinions General Counsel, 2 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 468. A company which merely operates, manages or controls a water plant or source of water supply, is not a water company within the meaning of the law, nor is a company which merely distributes or sells for distribution or sells or supplies for gain any water. The characters of these two separate classes of corporations. must be found blended in a company to make it a water company amenable to the jurisdiction of the Commission. Opinions General Counsel, 2 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 485. The Commission has jurisdiction of the service supplied by railroads, through a "Parcel Room," of safe-keeping packages for hire. Opinions General Counsel 3 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 463; Harlow vs. Northern Central Railway Company, 3 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 299. Coupes and taxicabs are common carriers and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission. Opinions General Counsel, 3 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 426. NO JURISDICTION. The Commission has no jurisdiction over paving and curbing or over the general condition of streets. Opinions General Counsel 1 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 68. There is nothing in the Public Service Commission Law requiring a change of corporate name to be approved by the Commission. Opinions General Counsel, 3 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 461. The Commission has no power to take away from a corporation any charter rights. Applied in case where it was objected that a gas and electric company had no power to engage in the business of electric wiring of houses and sale of electric appli Principal Stated Meet ings. ances. Baltimore Electric Supply Company et at. vs. Consolidated Gas, Electric Light and Power Company, 3 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 128; Opinions General Counsel, 3 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 437. The employment by a railway company of musicians for an amusement park belonging to the company is not within the jurisdiction of the Commission. Opinions General Counsel, 2 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 394. Where railway tracks run through a man's land, the Commission has no jurisdiction to compel the railway company to make a convenient crossing over its tracks so as to make the land on each side more accessible. The Commission has no jurisdiction of private rights of way. Jones vs. United Railways Company, 3 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 89. The Commission has no jurisdiction over private sewers in Baltimore City. Opinions General Counsel, 2 Pub. Serv. Comm. Rep. 513. A company formed for the purpose of erecting and maintaining a sewerage disposal plant does not come under the jurisdiction of the Commission. Opinions General Counsel filed January 31, 1913. But see Laws of Maryland 1912, Chap. 157, Sec. 1320, for a special jurisdiction lodged in the Commission over private sewers. The Public Service Commission has no jurisdiction of a municipal corporation owning and administering a water system. Opinions General Counsel, 2 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 482. Gas and electric plants conducted by municipalities are not under the control of the Commission, except as provided in Section 33 of the Law. Opinions General Counsel, 2 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 492; 3 Pub. Serv. Comm. Reps. 448. PLACE OF OFFICE: ORGANIZATION: HEARINGS. Ibid. Sec. 416. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the principal office of the Commission shall be in the City of Baltimore, at such place therein as said Commission shall select and determine from time to time. The Commission shall hold stated meetings at least once a week during the year at its office. The Commission shall have an official seal, Seal. Furniture, &c. 8 A. M. to The offices of said Commission shall be open for busi- Offices Open, ness between the hours of eight o'clock in the morning 9 P. M. and nine o'clock at night every day in the year, and one or more responsible persons, to be designated by the Commission or by the Secretary, under the direction of the Commission, shall be on duty at all times, in immediate charge thereof. Commissioner to Investigate. The Commission shall promptly and duly organize. A Quorum. majority of the Commissioners shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business, for the performance of any duty, or for the exercise of any power of the Commission, and may hold meetings of the Commission at any time and place within the State. Any investiga- Right of One tion, inquiry or hearing which the Commission has power to undertake or hold, may be undertaken or held by or before any one of said Commissioners, upon condition, however, that such Commissioner shall have first been authorized by the Commission to undertake to hold such. investigation, inquiry or hearing; and all investigations, inquiries or hearings of or by a Commissioner shall be and be deemed to be the investigations, inquiries and hearings of the Commission; provided, however, that each and all decisions of a Commissioner upon any such investigation, inquiry or hearing undertaken and held by |