N.Y. Public Service Law § 79: Adequate service; just and reasonable charges; unjust discrimination and unreasonable preference

§ 79. Adequate service; just and reasonable charges; unjust

discrimination and unreasonable preference. 1. Every steam corporation

shall furnish and provide such service, instrumentalities and facilities

as shall be safe and adequate and in all respects just and reasonable.

All charges made or demanded by any such corporation for such service

rendered or to be rendered shall be just and reasonable and not more

than allowed by order of the commission. Every unjust or unreasonable

charge made or demanded for such service, or in connection therewith or

in excess of that allowed by law or by the commission is prohibited.

2. No such corporation shall directly or indirectly by any special

rate, rebate, drawback or other device or method, charge, demand,

collect or receive from any person or corporation a greater or less

compensation for such service rendered or to be rendered or in

connection therewith, except as authorized in this chapter, than it

charges, demands, collects or receives from any other person or

corporation for doing a like and contemporaneous service with respect

thereto under the same or substantially similar circumstances or

conditions.

3. No such corporation shall make or grant any undue or unreasonable

preference or advantage to any person, corporation or locality, or to

any particular description of service in any respect whatsoever, or

subject any particular person, corporation or locality or any particular

description of service to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or

disadvantage in any respect whatsoever.

4. Nothing in this chapter shall be taken to prohibit any such

corporation from establishing a sliding scale for a fixed period for the

automatic adjustment of charges for such service or any service rendered

or to be rendered and the dividends to be paid to stockholders of such

corporation, provided that the sliding scale shall first have been filed

with and approved by the commission; but nothing in this subdivision

shall operate to prevent the commission after the expiration of such

fixed period from fixing proper, just and reasonable rates and charges

to be made for services as authorized in this article.

5. (a) Every steam corporation furnishing service may initiate a civil

action to collect a civil penalty against a user of non-residential

service in accordance with this subdivision. Upon a showing in such

action that a user of non-residential service has knowingly accepted or

received the use and benefit of such service which has been prevented

from being properly registered by a meter provided therefor, the

corporation may be granted a civil penalty, in addition to the value of

the unpaid service, in an amount which the court in its discretion shall

deem to be just and reasonable, which in no event shall be more than

three times the retail value of the steam service accepted or received.

In any action under this subdivision, proof that a meter has been

intentionally prevented from properly registering steam service shall be

prima facie proof that the user of non-residential service who accepts

or receives the use and benefit of such service has done so with

knowledge of the condition so existing, if the steam corporation shall

first present evidence that such person took possession of the

benefitted premises and used the service prior to the creation of the

condition.

(b) For the purposes of this subdivision, a user of non-residential

service shall be a person benefitting from such service who is in

possession of the premises to which the service is delivered.

(c) Any civil penalty recovered pursuant to this section in excess of

the actual damages sustained by the corporation shall be taken into

account by the public service commission in establishing future steam

rates.