SECTIONS 6261-6265 - California Statutes

PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE

SECTION 6261-6265

6261. Any franchise granted under this chapter with respect to a
given utility service is in lieu of all other franchises, rights, or
privileges owned by the grantee, or by any successor of the grantee
to any rights under the franchise, for transmitting and distributing
the utility service within the limits of the municipality as such
limits exist at the time of the granting of the franchise or as they
may thereafter exist except any franchise derived under Section 19 of
Article XI of the Constitution as that section existed prior to the
amendment thereof adopted October 10, 1911. The acceptance of any
such franchise granted under this chapter shall operate as an
abandonment of all such franchises, rights, and privileges within the
limits of such municipality as such limits at any time exist, in
lieu of which the franchise is granted under this chapter.

6262. No franchise granted under this chapter in any way impairs or
affects the right of the granting municipality to acquire the
property of the grantee by purchase or condemnation, and nothing
contained in such a franchise shall be construed to contract away,
modify or abridge either for a term or in perpetuity the municipality'
s right of eminent domain in respect to any public utility.

6263. No franchise granted under this chapter shall ever be given
any value before any court or other public authority in any
proceeding of any character in excess of the cost to the grantee of
the necessary publication and any other sum paid by it to the
municipality therefor at the time of acquisition.

6264. Every franchise granted pursuant to this chapter, except when
a definite term therefor is specified in the ordinance granting it,
is indeterminate, that is to say, every such franchise shall endure
in full force and effect until, with the consent of the Public
Utilities Commission, it is voluntarily surrendered or abandoned by
its possessor, or until the State or some municipal or public
corporation purchases by voluntary agreement or condemns and takes
under the power of eminent domain, all property actually used and
useful in the exercise of the franchise and situate within the
territorial limits of the State, municipal, or public corporation
purchasing or condemning such property, or until the franchise is
forfeited for noncompliance with its terms by the possessor thereof.

6265. Every gas franchise granted pursuant to this chapter confers
upon the grantee the right to use, or to lay and use, gas pipes and
appurtenances for the purpose of transmitting and distributing gas;
every oil franchise so granted confers upon the grantee thereof the
right to use, or lay and use, oil pipes and appurtenances for the
purpose of transmitting and distributing oil or products thereof;
every industrial gas franchise so granted confers upon the grantee
the right to use, or lay and use, industrial gas pipelines and
appurtenances for the purpose of transmitting and distributing
industrial gas; every water franchise so granted confers upon the
grantee thereof the right to use, or to lay and use, pipes, ditches,
flumes, conduits, and appurtenances for the purpose of transmitting
and distributing water; and every electric franchise so granted
confers upon the grantee thereof the right to use, or to construct
and use, poles, wires or conduits and appurtenances for the purpose
of transmitting and distributing electricity for all purposes, under,
along, across, or upon the public streets, ways, alleys, and places
as they now or hereafter exist within the municipality.