Oregon Statutes 759.385 – Contracts regarding use of utility property; filing with commission; investigation
(1) When any telecommunications utility doing business in this state, except a telecommunications carrier that has elected to be subject to ORS § 759.405 and 759.410, enters into a contract with another corporation with relation to the construction, operation, maintenance or use of the property of the telecommunications utility in Oregon, or the use of the property of the other contracting party, or any part of the property, or for service, advice, engineering, financing, rentals, leasing or for any construction or management charges with respect to any of the property, or for the purchase of property, materials or supplies, the proposed contract shall be filed with the Public Utility Commission for investigation and approval when the telecommunications utility owns a majority of or controls directly or indirectly the voting stock of the other contracting corporations.
Terms Used In Oregon Statutes 759.385
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Telecommunications: means the transmission of information chosen by a person, between or among points specified by the person, without change in the form or content of the information sent or received. See Oregon Statutes 759.005
(2) Any proposed contract described in subsection (1) of this section shall be filed with the commission within 90 days of execution of the contract. The contract shall be deemed to be executed on the date the parties sign a written contract or on the date the parties begin to transact business under the contract, whichever date is earlier. The commission shall promptly investigate and act upon the contract in accordance with ORS § 759.390 (4) and (7).
(3) In making an investigation of the contract, the commission and accountants, examiners and agents, appointed by the commission for the purpose, shall be given free access to all books, books of account, documents, data and records of the telecommunications utility, as well as of the corporation with which it is proposing to contract, that the commission may deem material to the investigation. The failure or refusal of either of the parties to the proposed contract to comply with this subsection is prima facie evidence that the contract is unfair, unreasonable and contrary to public interest, and is sufficient to justify a determination and finding of the commission to that effect. A determination and finding by the commission under this subsection has the same force and effect as any other determination or order of the commission.
(4) This section applies only to transactions in which the telecommunications utility’s Oregon intrastate expenditure to the affiliate is more than $100,000. [1987 c.447 § 43; 1989 c.956 § 4; 1991 c.899 § 1; 1999 c.809 § 1; 2005 c.232 § 21; 2009 c.11 § 97]