Colorado § 40-4-101 - Regulations, service, and facilities prescribed.

§ 40-4-101. Regulations, service, and facilities prescribed.

(1) Whenever the commission, after a hearing upon its own motion or upon complaint, finds that the rules, regulations, practices, equipment, facilities, or service of any public utility or the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or supply employed by it are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the commission shall determine the just, reasonable, safe, proper, adequate, or sufficient rules, regulations, practices, equipment, facilities, service, or methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or employed and shall fix the same by its order, rule, or regulation.

(2) The commission shall prescribe rules and regulations for the performance of any service or the furnishing of any commodity of the character furnished or supplied by any public utility, and upon proper tender of rates, such public utility shall furnish such commodity or render such service within the time and upon the conditions provided in such rules.

(3) The commission shall prescribe rules and regulations for the termination of gas and electric service to residential customers. Said rules and regulations shall require that the customer be given reasonable notice and an opportunity to be heard by the terminating utility company before termination of gas or electric service and that such service may not be terminated during certain periods if the customer establishes that termination of the service would be especially dangerous to the health or safety of the customer and that he is unable to pay for the service as regularly billed by the utility, or that he is able to pay but only in reasonable installments.

Source: L. 13: p. 475, § 24. C.L. § 2935. CSA: C. 137, § 25. CRS 53: § 115-4-1. C.R.S. 1963: § 115-4-1. L. 69: p. 933, § 19. L. 80: Entire section amended, p. 748, § 1, effective April 13.

ANNOTATION

Law reviews. For article, "Generation and Transmission Loan Policy Under the Rural Electrification Act", see 43 Den. L.J. 269 (1966).

Railroad under obligation to operate in manner contemplated by charter. The consideration for the franchise, rights, and privileges granted a railroad company by a state is the resulting benefits to the public, and the acceptance by the company, generally speaking, imposes upon it the obligation to operate, when constructed, the railroad it was incorporated to construct, and of doing so in the manner and for the purpose contemplated by its charter. Colo. & S. Ry. v. State R. R. Comm'n, 54 Colo. 64, 129 P. 506 (1912).

Question of loss must be considered in connection with duties of railway company to public, and the result of its corporate business, as a whole; it is not to be excused from performing its whole duty, merely because by ceasing to operate a part of its system the net returns will be increased. Colo. & S. Ry. v. State R. R. Comm'n, 54 Colo. 64, 129 P. 506 (1912).

State may impose upon railroad cost of installation of safety devices at grade crossings, or such part thereof, as it deems appropriate. Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. v. Pub. Utils. Comm'n, 190 Colo. 378, 547 P.2d 234 (1976).

Not considering cost of maintenance not unfair or unreasonable. The statutory elimination, in § 40-4-106 (2)(b), of consideration of the cost of maintenance in determining allocation of cost of installation does not render the police power exercised unfair or unreasonable. Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. v. Pub. Utils. Comm'n, 190 Colo. 378, 547 P.2d 234 (1976).

Railway company may be compelled to resume operation of part of line which has been abandoned. Colo. & S. Ry. v. State R. R. Comm'n, 54 Colo. 64, 129 P. 506 (1912).

Commission has exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether railroad company may abandon service upon and dismantle a railroad, lying wholly within the state. People ex rel. Hubbard v. Colo. Title & Trust Co., 65 Colo. 472, 178 P. 6 (1918).

Courts will not interfere with commission's rulings if reasonable. The commission is clothed with general powers to regulate and control carriers for hire within the state, and courts will not interfere with its administrative rulings when they are just and reasonable. Pub. Utils. Comm'n v. Weicker Transp. Co., 102 Colo. 211, 78 P.2d 633 (1938); Airport Limousine Serv., Inc. v. Cabs, Inc., 167 Colo. 378, 447 P.2d 978 (1968).

Applied in Pub. Utils. Comm'n v. Erie, 92 Colo. 151, 18 P.2d 906 (1933); Denver Welfare Rights Org. v. Pub. Utils. Comm'n, 190 Colo. 329, 547 P.2d 239 (1976).