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expended prior to the first day of April, nineteen hundred and fourteen, in the acquisition of property, the construction, maintenance, completion, extension or improvement of its facilities; provided that the applicant shall have kept its accounts and vouchers in such manner as will enable the commission to ascertain the amount so expended and the purposes for which such expenditures were made, and that application for the order of the commission authorizing such issue shall be made on or before the first day of April, nineteen hundred and fifteen, and provided further, that the legal validity and effectiveness of any order of the commission made prior to January first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, authorizing and approving an issue of stock for the capitalization of earnings expended in the acquisition of property, or in the improvements, maintenance or extension of facilities, shall not be in anywise affected, restricted or impaired by anything contained in this Act, and every such order is hereby ratified and confirmed.

1910, ch. 180, sec. 28.

440. Every common carrier, railroad corporation, street railroad corporation and other corporation subject to the provisions of the sub-title, and all officers and agents of any common carrier, railroad corporation and street railroad corporation, and of any other corporation subject to the provisions of this sub-title, shall obey, observe and comply with every order made by the commission, under authority of this sub-title, so long as the same shall be and remain in force. Any common carrier, railroad corporation or street railroad corporation, which shall violate any provisions of this sub-title, or which fails, omits or neglects to obey, observe or comply with any order, or any direction or requirement of the commission, shall forfeit to the State of Maryland a sum not to exceed the sum of five thousand dollars for each and every offense; every violation of any such order or direction or requirement, or of this sub-title, shall be a separate and distinct offense, and, in case of a continuing violation, every day's continuance thereof shall be and be deemed to be a separate and distinct offense.

Every person, officer and agent of any such common carrier, railroad corporation or street railroad corporation who shall

violate, or who procures, aids or abets any violation by any such common carrier or corporation of any provision of this sub-title, or who shall fail to obey, observe and comply with any order of the commission, or any provision of an order of the commission, or who procures, aids or abets any such common carrier in its failure to obey, observe and comply with any such order or provision, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Whenever the commission shall be of the opinion that a common carrier, railroad corporation or street railroad corporation, or other corporation, subject to its supervision, is failing or omitting, or about to fail or omit to do anything required of it by law, or by order of the commission, or is doing any. thing, or about to do anything, or permitting anything or about to permit anything to be done, contrary to or in violation of law or of any order of this commission, it shall direct the general counsel to the commission to commence an action or proceeding before one of the judges of the supreme bench of Baltimore City or in the Circuit Court of the county in which such corporation has its principal place of business, or carried on its business in the name of the commission, for the purpose of having such violations or threatened violations stopped and prevented, either by mandamus or injunction. Counsel to the commission shall thereupon begin such action or proceeding by a petition to and in any of the said Courts, as the case may require, alleging the violation or threatened violation complained of, and praying for appropriate relief by way of mandamus or injunction. It shall thereupon be the duty of the Court to specify the time not exceeding twenty days after service of the petition within which the common carrier, railroad corporation or street railroad corporation complained of must answer the petition. In case of default in answer, or after answer, the Court shall immediately inquire into the facts and circumstances in such manner as the Court may direct, without other or formal pleadings, and without respect to any technical requirements. Such other persons or corporations as the Court shall deem necessary or proper to join as parties in order to make its order, judgment or writs effective, may be joined as parties upon application of counsel to the commission. The final judgment in any such action or proceeding shall either

dismiss the action or proceedings or direct that a writ of mandamus or an injunction issue, as prayed for in the petition or in such modified or other forms as the Court may determine will afford the appropriate relief.

Any corporation, other than a common carrier, which shall violate any provision of this sub-title, or shall fail to obey, observe and comply with every order made by the commission under authority of this sub-title, so long as the same shall be and remain in force, shall forfeit to the State of Maryland a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars for each and every offense; every such violation shall be a separate and distinct offense, and the penalty or forfeiture thereof shall be recovered in an action as provided in this section.

Every person who, either individually or acting as an officer or agent of a corporation or person, other than a common carrier, railroad corporation or street railroad corporation, shall violate any provision of this sub-title, or fail to obey, observe or comply with any order made by the commission under this sub-title, so long as the same shall be or remain in force, or who shall procure or aid or abet any such corporation or person in a violation of this sub-title, or in a failure to obey, observe or comply with any such order, shall be guilty of a misde

meanor.

In construing and enforcing the provision of this sub-title relating to forfeitures and penalties, the act of any director, officer or other person acting for or employed by any common carrier, railroad corporation, street railroad corporation or other corporation subject to this sub-title, acting within the scope of his official duties or employment, shall be in every case and be deemed to be the act of such common carrier or corporation or person.

An action to recover a penalty or a forfeiture under this sub-title may be brought in any Court of competent jurisdiction in this State in the name of the State of Maryland, and shall be commenced and prosecuted to final judgment by counsel to the commission. In any such action all penalties and forfeitures incurred up to the time of commencing the same may be sued for and recovered therein and the commencement of the action to recover a penalty of or forfeiture shall not be, or be held to

be, a waiver of the right to recover any other penalty or forfeiture; if the defendant in such action shall prove that during any portion of the time for which it is sought to recover penalties or forfeitures for a violation of an order of the commission the defendant was actually and in good faith prosecuting a suit, action or proceeding in the Courts to set aside such order, the Court shall remit the penalties or forfeitures incurred during the pendency of such suit, action, or proceeding. All moneys recovered in any such action, together with the costs thereof, shall be paid to the State Treasurer, except one-fourth of the moneys recovered (exclusive of costs), which shall be paid to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.*

1910, ch. 180, sec. 29.

441. The commission may investigate freight rates on interstate traffic of common carriers within the State, and when such rates are, in the opinion of the commission, excessive or discriminatory, or are levied or laid in violation of the interstate commerce law, or in conflict with the ruling, orders or regulations of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the commission may apply by petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission for relief, or may present to the Interstate Commerce Commission all facts coming to its knowledge, as to violation of the rulings, orders or regulations of that commission, or as violations of the interstate commerce law.

1910, ch. 180, sec. 30.

442. The commission shall, whenever it may deem it desirable to do so, investigate and ascertain the fair value of property of any corporation subject to the provisions of this sub-title and used by it for the convenience of the public. For the purpose of such investigation the commission is authorized to employ such engineers, experts and other assistants as may be necessary. Such investigations shall be prosecuted with diligence and thoroughness, and the results thereof reported to the Legislature at each regular session. Such valuation shall show the value of the property of every such corporation as a

The Legislature may impose on common carriers duties in excess of their common law duties and may exercise this power through a commission. Public Service Commission vs. Northern Central Ry., 122 Md. 355, 372.

whole, and the value of its property in each of the several counties and municipalities within the State of Maryland. Every such valuation shall be so made and ascertained by the commission that as far as possible it shall not disturb the value of bonds of said corporation issued prior to April 5, 1910.

Every such corporation shall furnish to the commission from time to time, and as the commission may require, maps, profiles, contracts, reports of engineers and other documents, records and papers, or copies of any and all of the same in aid of such investigation, and to determine the value of the property of such corporation used for the public service, and every such corporation is required to co-operate with the commission in the work of the valuation of its property in such further particulars and to such extent as the commission may reasonably direct. The commission shall thereafter, in like manner, keep itself informed of all extensions and improvements or other changes in the condition of the property of the said corporation and ascertain the fair value thereof, and from time to time, as may be required for the regulation of corporations under the provisions of this sub-title, revise and correct its valuation of the property of such corporations. To enable the commission to make such changes and corrections in its valuation, every corporation subject to the provisions of this sub-title is hereby required to report currently to the commission, and as the commission may require, all improvements and changes in its property and to file with the commission copies of all contracts. for such improvements at the time same are executed.

Whenever the commission shall have completed the valuation of property of any such corporation and before such valuation shall become final, the commission shall give notice in the manner prescribed in this sub-title for the service of a copy of an order upon such corporation, to the company or companies owning or operating such property, stating the valuation placed upon the several lines of roads or classes of prop erty of the said company used by it for the convenience of the public, and shall allow the company or companies a reasonable time in which to file a protest of same with the commission. If no protest is filed within such time such valuation shall become final. If notice of contest is filed by any such corpora

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