N.Y. Public Service Law § 95: Reports of telegraph corporations and telephone corporations

§ 95. Reports of telegraph corporations and telephone corporations.

1. Every telegraph corporation and every telephone corporation shall

file with the commission an annual report at a time and covering the

yearly period fixed by the commission. Such annual reports shall be

verified by the oath of the president, vice-president, treasurer,

secretary, general manager or receiver if any of such corporations, or

by the person required to file the same. Verification shall be made by

the official holding office at the time of the filing of said report,

and if not made upon the knowledge of the person verifying the same

shall set forth in general terms the sources of his information and the

grounds for his belief as to any matters not stated to be verified on

his knowledge. The commission shall prescribe the form of such reports

and the character of the information to be contained therein and may,

from time to time make such changes and additions in regard to form and

contents thereof as it may deem proper and shall furnish a blank form

for such annual reports to every telegraph corporation and every

telephone corporation required to make the same. When the report of any

telegraph corporation or telephone corporation is defective or erroneous

the commission shall notify the corporation to amend the same within a

time prescribed by the commission. The said reports shall be preserved

in the office of the commission. The commission may require of any

telegraph corporation or telephone corporation specific answers to

questions upon which the commission may desire information. If any

telegraph corporation or telephone corporation shall fail to make and

file its annual report as and when required or within such extended time

as the commission may allow or shall fail to make specific answers to

any question within the period specified by the commission for the

making and filing of such answers, such corporation shall forfeit to the

state the sum of one hundred dollars for each and every day it shall

continue to be in default with respect to such report or answer. Such

forfeiture shall be recovered in an action brought by the commission in

the name of the people of the state of New York. The amount recovered in

any such action shall be paid into the state treasury and shall be

credited to the general fund. The commission may, when it deems it

advisable, exempt any telegraph corporation or telephone corporation

from the necessity of filing annual reports until the further order of

the commission.

2. The commission may establish a system of accounts to be used by

telegraph corporations and telephone corporations, which are subject to

its jurisdiction, and are required to make annual reports to it or

classify the said corporations, and prescribe a system of accounts for

each class and may prescribe the manner in which such accounts shall be

kept. It may also, in its discretion prescribe the form of records to be

kept by such corporation. Notice of alterations by the commission in the

required method or form of keeping accounts shall be given to such

corporations by the commission at least six months before the same are

to take effect. The commission shall at all times have access to all

accounts, records and memoranda kept by telegraph corporations and

telephone corporations, and may designate any of its officers or

employees who shall thereupon be authorized under the order of the

commission to inspect and examine any and all accounts, records and

memoranda kept by any such corporation; and the commission may, after a

hearing, prescribe by order, the accounts in which particular outlays

and receipts shall be entered, charged or credited. At any such hearing

the burden of proof shall be on the corporation to establish the

correctness of the accounts in which such outlays and receipts have been

entered and the commission may suspend a charge or credit pending

submission of proof by such corporation. Any provision of law

prohibiting the disclosure of the contents of telegraph messages or the

contents or substance of telephone communications shall not be deemed to

prohibit the disclosure of any matter in accordance with the provisions

of this chapter.

3. In the case of a telephone corporation having property actually

used in the public service within the state of a value of less than ten

thousand dollars and operated for profit, the commission may and

wherever it deems it practicable shall prescribe a simplified system of

accounts and reports suitable to the character and activities of the

telephone corporation regulated.