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its discretion may give preference to such actions over all other business, except criminal cases. [Same, § 28.]

SEC. 2150. Free transportation or reduced rates. Nothing in this chapter shall apply to the transportation, storage or handling of property free or at reduced rates for the United States, this state, or municipal governments, by common carriers, nor for charitable purposes, or to and from fairs and expositions for exhibition thereat, nor for the employes thereof or their families, or private property or goods for the family use of such employes, nor from giving reduced rates to the quartermaster-general of Iowa for the transportation of officers or enlisted men of Iowa national guard, when traveling under the orders of the commander-in-chief, or to ministers of religion, nor from giving free transportation to their own officers and employes, and their families dependent upon them for support, nor to persons in charge of live stock being shipped, from point of shipment to destination and return, nor to prevent the officers of any railway company from exchanging passes or tickets with other railroad companies for their officers and employes; and nothing in this chapter shall in any way abridge or alter the remedies now existing at common law or by statute, but the provisions thereof are in addition to such remedies. [26 G. A., ch. 34; 22 G. A., ch. 28, § 29.]

SEC. 2151. Commissioners transported free. The commissioners and their secretary shall be carried free, while performing their duties, on all railroads and trains in the state, and may take with them experts or other agents, who shall be carried free. [22 G. A., ch. 28, § 30.]

SEC. 2152. Joint rates. The preceding sections of this chapter shall not be construed to prohibit the making of rates by two or more railway companies for the transportation of property over two or more of their respective lines within the state; and a less charge by each of said companies for its portion of such joint shipment than it charges for a shipment for the same distance wholly over its own line within the state shall not be considered a violation of said chapter, and shall not render such company liable to any of the penalties thereof; but the provisions of this section shall not be construed to permit railway companies establishing joint rates to make thereby any unjust discrimination between the different shipping points or stations upon their respective lines between which joint rates are established, and any such unjust discrimination shall be punished in the manner and by the penalties provided by this chapter. [23 G. A., eh. 17, § 1.]

SEC. 2153. Connecting lines. All railway companies doing business in this state shall, upon the demand of any person or persons interested, establish reasonable joint through rates for the transportation of freight between points upon their respective lines within this state, and shall receive and transport freight and cars over such route or routes as the shipper shall direct. Car-load lots shall be transferred without unloading from the cars in which such shipments were first made, unless such unloading into other cars shall be done without charge therefor to the shipper or receiver of

such cars lots, and unless such transfer be made without unreasonable delay; and less than car-load lots shall be transferred into the connecting railway's cars at cost, which shall be included in and made a part of the joint rate adopted by such railway companies, or established as provided in this chapter. [Same, § 2.]

This provision relating to the establishment of joint rates over connecting lines within the state, held not unconstitutional: Burlington, C. R. & N. R. Co. v. Dey, 82-312.

It will be presumed that the railroad commissioners will rightly discharge their duties, and will fix reasonable and just joint through rates. If these officers fail in their duty, from errors of judgment or from other causes, the railroads may cause their action to be reviewed and corrected: lbid.

The railroad companies are not compelled to enter involuntarily into contract relations with each other, but the statute simply provides that in case of failure to adopt joint rates, the railroad commissioners shall prescribe them, and the company shall not be permitted to charge more: Ibid.

SEC. 2154. Reasonable through rates-no discrimination. When shipments of freight to be transported between different points within the state are required to be carried by two or more railway companies operating connecting lines, such railway companies shall transport the same at reasonable through rates, and shall at all times give the same facilities and accommodations to local or state traffic as they give to interstate traffic over their lines of road. [Same, § 2.]

SEC. 2155. Schedules of joint rates. In the event that said railway companies fail to establish through joint rates, or fail to establish and charge reasonable rates for such through shipments, it shall be the duty of the board of railroad commissioners, upon the application of any person interested, to establish such rates for the shipment of freight and cars over two or more connecting lines of railroad in the state; and in the making thereof, and in changing or revising the same, they shall be governed, as nearly as may be, by the provisions of the preceding sections of this chapter, and shall take into consideration the average of rates charged by said railway companies for shipments within this state for like distances over their respective lines, and rates charged by the railway companies operating such connecting lines, for joint interstate shipments for like distances. The rates established by the board shall go into effect within ten days after the same are promulgated, and from and after that time a schedule thereof shall be prima facie evidence in all the courts of this state that the rates therein fixed are just and reasonable for the joint transportation of freight and cars upon the railroads for which such schedules have been fixed. [24 G. A., ch. 25; 23 G. A., ch. 17, § 3.]

The joint rates fixed by commissioners are not absolute, but prima facie evidence only of their reasonableness and justness: Burlington, C. R. & N. R. Co. v. Dey, 82-312.

A rate fixed to govern two or more roads as to the shipment which passes over all of them is in legal effect a joint rate and a schedule for such rates is to be adopted in pursuance of the provisions of these sections and not under other sections authorizing the commissioners to establish a general schedule: State v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., 90-594.

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Therefore a schedule of such joint rates can be adopted on notice only as required by these sections and cannot be treated as an amendment or modifica tion of the schedule of rates under the general sections providing for a schedule even though the rates under the joint rate schedule are simply a proportion of the rates under the general schedule: Ibid.

Before the promulgation

SEC. 2156. Division of joint rates. of such rates, the board shall notify the railroad companies interested of the schedule of joint rates fixed, and give them a reasonable time thereafter to agree upon a division of the charges provided for therein. If such companies fail to agree upon a division, and to notify the board thereof, it shall, after a hearing of the companies interested, decide the same, taking into consideration the value of terminal facilities and all the circumstances of the haul, and the division so determined by it shall, in all controversies or actions between the railway companies interested, be prima facie evidence of a just and reasonable division thereof. [23 G. A., ch. 17, § 4.]

SEC. 2157. Unreasonable charges-penalty. Every unjust and unreasonable charge for the transportation of freight and cars over two or more railroads in this state is prohibited, and every company making such unreasonable and unlawful charges, or otherwise violating the provisions of this chapter, shall be punished as provided in this chapter for the making of unreasonable charges for the transportation of freight and cars over a single line of railroad by a single railway company. [Same, § 5.]

CHAPTER 71, LAWS 28 G. A.

SALE AND REDEMPTION OF PASSENGER TICKETS.

To regulate the sale, and require the redemption of, passenger tickets by common carrters. (Amending chapter 7, title X of the code.) SECTION 1. Common carriers to redeem tickets. It shall be the duty of every railroad company, corporation, person or persons acting as common carriers of passengers in the state of Iowa, to provide for the redemption, at the place of purchase and at the general passenger agent's office of said carrier of the whole or any integral part of any passenger ticket or tickets that such carrier may have sold, as the purchaser or owner has not used for passage or received transportation for which such ticket should have been surrendered; and said carrier shall there redeem the same at a rate which shall equal the difference between the price paid for the whole ticket and the cost of a ticket between the points for which said ticket has been actually used, and no carrier shall limit the time in which redemption shall be made to less than ten days from date of sale at the place of purchase and six months from sale at general passenger agent's office.

SEC. 2. Notice posted. No railroad company, corporation, person or persons doing business in the state of Iowa, as common carrier of passengers, whose rate of fare is regulated by statute of this state, shall sell or issue to any person at the maximum rate allowed by law, any ticket or tickets bearing any condition or limitation as to the time of use, or as to transferability, without first providing for the redemption of said ticket, as directed by the preceding section hereof, and also having notice of such provision and privilege of redemption conspicuously posted at each place where sales of tickets are made by such common carriers in this state. A failure to provide for the redemption of such ticket or to give notice as above provided shall make all conditions and limitation as to time of use or transferability of no force or effect.

SEC. 3. Penalty. Any railroad company, corporation, person or persons, who as common carriers shall sell or issue tickets as set forth in the preceding sections, and shall refuse or neglect to redeem the same, as by said sections provided, within ten days of date of demand, shall forfeit and pay to the owner of such ticket the purchase price of said ticket, and the further sum of one hundred dollars.

SEC. 4. Mileage books. Nothing in this act shall prohibit the sale of mileage books or tickets, at less than the maximum rates allowed by law, bearing reasonable conditions of limitation as to the right of use for passage. Approved April 4, 1900.

CHAPTER 8.

OF TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE LINES.

SECTION 2158. Right of way. Any person or firm, and any corporation organized for such purpose, within or without the state, may construct a telegraph or telephone line along the public roads of the state, or across the rivers or over any lands belonging to the state or any private individual, and may erect the necessary fixtures therefor. When any road along which said line has been constructed shall be changed, the person, firm or corporation shall, upon ninety days' notice in writing, remove said lines to said road as established. The notice may be served upon any agent or operator in the employ of such person, firm or corporation. [19 G. A., ch. 104; C. '73, § 1324; R., § 1348; C. '51, § 780.]

Both telegraph and telephone are used for distant communication by means of wire stretched over different jurisdictions. The fundamental principle in each, by which communication is procured, is the same, and prior to any mention of telephone companies it was held that the statutes with reference to telegraph companies were in general applicable to telephone companies: Iowa Union Telephone Co v. Board of Equalization, 67–250; Franklin v. Northwestern Telephone Co., 69-97. As to taxation of such companies, see ? 1328-1332.

SEC. 2159. How constructed. Such fixtures shall not be so constructed as to incommode the public in the use of any road or the navigation of any stream; nor shall they be set up on the private grounds of any individual without paying him a just equivalent for the damage he thereby sustains. [C. 73, § 1325; R., § 1349; C. '51, § 781.]

SEC. 2160. Damages assessed. If the person over whose lands such telegraph or telephone line passes claims more damages therefor than the proprietor of such line is willing to pay, the amount thereof may be determined in the same manner as provided for taking private property for works of internal improvement. [C. '73, § 1326; R., § 1350; C. 51, § 782.]

If

SEC. 2161. Liability for refusing to transmit messages. the proprietor of any telegraph or telephone line within the state, or the person having the control and management thereof, refuses to furnish equal facilities to the public and to all connecting lines for the transmission of communications in accordance with the nature of the business which it undertakes to carry on, or to transmit the same with fidelity and without unreasonable delay, the law in relation to limited partnerships, corporations, and to the taking of private property for works of internal improvement, shall not longer apply to them, and property taken for the use thereof without the consent of the owner may be recovered by him. [C. '73, § 1327; R., § 1351; C. 51, § 783.]

SEC. 2162. Penalty. Any person employed in transmitting messages by telegraph or telephone must do so with fidelity and without unreasonable delay, and if any one wilfully fails thus to transmit them, or intentionally transmits a message erroneously, or makes known the contents of any message sent or received to any person except him to whom it is addressed, or his agent or attorney, or wilfully and wrongfully takes or receives any telegraph or telephone message, he is guilty of a misdemeanor. [C. '73, § 1328; R., § 1352; C. '51, § 784.]

This does not excuse an operator from producing the telegrams which have passed between parties when subpoenaed as a witness in an action between them as to the transaction to which they relate: Woods v. Miller, 55–168.

SEC. 2163. Liable for mistakes. The proprietor of a telegraph or telephone line is liable for all mistakes in transmitting or receiving messages made by any person in his employment, or for any unreasonable delay in their transmission or delivery, and for all damages resulting from failure to perform the foregoing or any other duty required by law, the provisions of any contract to the contrary notwithstanding. [C. 73, § 1329; R., § 1353; C. '51, § 785.]

A telegraph company enjoys a public use and eminent domain may be exercised in its behalf, and its rates may be regulated by legislation. Also it is bound to serve all alike and to exercise due care in the discharge of its duties: Mentzer v. Western Union Tel. Co., 62 N. W., 1.

While it is not an insurer of the delivery of messages, it is liable for negli gence in transmitting or delivering, and this liability is either in contract or tort: Ibid.

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