Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024
D. WHEREAS,
the Commission now deems it necessary and advisable to promulgate rules and
regulations pursuant to the aforesaid constitutional provision, IT IS THEREFORE
ORDERED:
(1) Upon the petition of any
telephone or telegraph company operating intrastate in New Mexico, or upon the
petition of twenty-five (25) of the customers of any such carrier, or upon the
Commission's own motion, the Commission upon the filing of such a petition
shall fix a time and place for hearing thereon. All parties shall be given ten
(10) days' notice of such time and place for hearing by the Commission. The
Commission shall cause notice of such hearing to be served at least five (5)
days before the hearing upon any officer or owner of the telephone or telegraph
company involved in the proposed interchange of messages or interconnection of
lines and facilities and on other interested parties as determined by the
Commission, and any such telephone or telegraph company is hereby declared to
be an interested party in such proceedings and may offer testimony for or
against the granting of the relief requested in such petition. Any other
interested person may offer testimony at such hearing. The Commission shall fix
the time and place for any such hearing. If the Commission, after investigation
and hearing, finds from the evidence that an interchange of messages or the
interconnection of lines and facilities will be of advantage to the public and
best serve the public interest or public convenience and necessity, it may
issue an order requiring the interchange or interconnection upon such terms and
conditions as, in its judgment, the public convenience and necessity may
require; otherwise the relief requested in such petition shall be denied. In
making any such order the Commission shall take into consideration the matters
and things set forth in the following paragraphs of these rules.
(2) It is not intended these rules shall
apply to the interconnection or interchange of messages with so-called "service
station" lines where the carrier provides the switching, directory and rental
of equipment service, nor to situations where the purpose of the connection
primarily involves interchange of local messages within an exchange or
interconnection of lines and facilities for local calls only, as distinguished
from long distance calls.
(3) No
order affecting such interchange of messages or interconnection of lines and
facilities shall be entered by the Commission without notice and a hearing. All
parties shall be entitled to be heard, through themselves or their counsel, and
shall have process to enforce the attendance of witnesses. At the hearing held
pursuant to such notice, the Commission may take such testimony as may be
offered or as it may desire, and may make such other and further investigation
as, in its opinion, is desirable.
(4) Each witness who shall appear before the
Commission, by its order, shall receive for his attendance the fees and mileage
provided for witnesses in civil cases in courts of record, which shall be
audited and paid by the State out of the State Corporation Commission [Public
Regulation Commission] fund upon the presentation of proper vouchers; but no
witnesses subpoenaed at the instance of parties other than the Commission shall
be entitled to compensation from the State for attendance and travel.
(5) No person shall be excused from attending
and testifying or from producing books and papers before the Commission, or in
obedience to the subpoena of the said Commission, whether such subpoena be
signed or issued by one (1) or more of the members of the said Commission, in
any investigation held by or before the said Commission or in any cause or
proceeding in any court by or against the said Commission, relative to matters
provided for in these rules, on the ground or for the reason that the testimony
or evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of him may tend to incriminate
him or subject him to a penalty or forfeiture; provided, that nothing herein
contained shall be construed as requiring any person to produce any books or
papers, or to testify in response to any inquiry, not pertinent to some
question lawfully before such Commission or court for determination. No person
shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for or on account
of any transaction, matter or thing concerning which he may be required to
testify or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, before said Commission,
or in obedience to its subpoena, or in any such cause or proceedings; provided,
that no person testifying shall be exempted from prosecution and punishment for
perjury committed in so testifying.
(6) In case of failure or refusal on the part
of any person to comply with any subpoena issued by said Commission or any
member thereof, or on the refusal of any witness to testify or answer as to any
matters regarding which he may be lawfully interrogated, any district court in
this State, or any judge thereof, on application of a member of said Commission
may issue an attachment for such person and compel him to comply with such
subpoena and to attend before the Commission and produce such documents and
give his testimony upon such matters as may be lawfully required and such court
or judge shall have the power to punish for contempt as in cases of
disobedience of a like subpoena issued by or from such court, or a refusal to
testify therein.
(7) Whenever the
Commission shall make any order or determination, or issue any subpoena, notice
or writ, notice thereof may be served on the person affected thereby, by
delivering a copy of such order, subpoena, notice or writ, signed by or in the
name of the chairman of said Commission to any such person or an officer or
agent of such person, as in the case of civil process, which service may be
executed by any member of said Commission, the secretary or any employee
thereof, or by any sheriff in this State. A copy of such order, subpoena,
notice or writ, with the service endorsed thereon, must be returned to the said
Commission and entered of record as a part of the proceedings and such
endorsement and return shall be prima facie evidence that such order, subpoena,
notice or writ has been duly served.
(8) Any order issued by the Commission after
completion of its investigation and hearing shall be a final order within the
meaning of these rules.
(9) If it
be determined such an interchange or interconnection is needed and if the
telephone companies involved cannot agree upon the method of interchange or
point of interconnection or other conditions including the proration or other
adjustment of construction costs that may be incurred in making the physical
arrangements of the facilities of either or both or all carriers involved, then
the Commission on the basis of the evidence presented to it upon such matters
will determine the proper method of interchange or point of interconnection
which will be reasonable and just to the two or more telephone or telegraph
companies involved and will determine the obligations of each of the telephone
or telegraph companies.
(10) In any
proceeding in which a proper point of interconnection is in question, the
Commission will give consideration to costs that may be required of each of the
carriers and, where possible, will avoid circuitous routing. Substantial
consideration will be given to the nearest point at which a connection may be
made with established or proposed toll routes capable of handling the toll
messages offered at the point of interconnection.
(11) The Commission will consider and
determine whether an undue burden will be placed upon any one or more of such
telephone and telegraph companies involved in the interconnection; whether the
facilities of the carriers involved in the proposed interconnection or
interchange of messages are properly qualified; whether the facilities and
equipment of the carriers whose lines are proposed to be interconnected meet
the normal construction standards; and particularly the communication
requirements and community of interest of the public.
(12) In order to better meet and carry out
the provisions of the constitution as stated above the Commission may provide
the arrangement for the interchange or interconnection which shall be for a
limited trial period pending further proceedings before the
Commission.
(13) The Commission
shall arrange for the service of all interim and final orders upon each and all
of the parties to such proceedings before the Commission.
(14)
(a) Any
telephone or telegraph company, or any other person in interest, being
dissatisfied with any order or determination of the Commission, not removable
to the supreme court of the State of New Mexico under the provisions of Section
7, Article XI of the Constitution of the State of New Mexico, may commence an
action in the district court for Santa Fe County against the Commission as
defendant, to vacate and set aside such order or determination, on the ground
that it is unlawful, unreasonable or confiscates the property of the
dissatisfied telephone or telegraph carrier. In any such proceeding, the court
may grant relief by injunction, mandamus or other extraordinary remedy. In such
action the Complaint shall be served with the Summons.
(b) The answer of the Commission to the
complaint shall be served and filed within twenty (20) days after service of
the complaint, whereupon said action shall be at issue without further pleading
and stand ready for trial upon ten (10) days' notice.
(c) Any person not a party to the action, but
having an interest in the subject thereof, may be made a party.
(d) All such actions shall have precedence
over any civil cause of a different nature, and the district court shall always
be deemed open for the trial thereof, and the same shall be tried and
determined as other civil actions without a jury.
(15) Every action to vacate or amend any
determination or order of the Commission or to enjoin the enforcement thereof
or to prevent such order or determination from becoming effective shall be
commenced, and every appeal to the courts or right of recourse to the courts
shall be taken or exercised within ninety (90) days after the entry or
rendition of such order or determination, the right to commence any such
action, or to take or exercise any such appeal or right of recourse to the
courts, shall terminate absolutely at the end of such ninety (90)
days.
(16) Any party to said
action, within thirty (30) days after service of a copy of the said order or
judgment of the district court, may appeal to the Supreme Court, and the cause
shall be placed on the calendar of the then pending term and shall be assigned
and brought to a hearing in the same manner as other causes on the
calendar.
(17) In such actions and
proceedings in court all processes shall be served and the practice and rules
of evidence shall be the same as in civil actions, except as otherwise
provided.
(18) A copy of these
rules will be mailed to each telephone and telegraph carrier in the State of
New Mexico subject to the jurisdiction of this Commission.
(19) DONE at Santa Fe, New Mexico, this 19th
day of September, 1963. STATE CORPORATION COMMISSION OF NEW MEXICO, G.W. Fails,
Chairman, M.E. Morgan, Commissioner, Columbus Ferguson, Commissioner, ATTEST R.
C. Cybert, Director, Traffic and Rate Division.