65-21-108 - Priority of messages Privacy. - Tennessee Statutes

65-21-108. Priority of messages Privacy.

(a)  All other messages, including those received from other telegraph or telephone companies, shall be transmitted in order of their delivery, correctly, and without unreasonable delay, and at the usual rates, and shall be kept strictly confidential, subject, however, to disclosure in any legal proceedings; provided, that arrangements may be made with the publishers of newspapers for the transmission of intelligence of general and public interest.

(b)  Any officer or agent of a telegraph or telephone company who willfully violates any of the provisions of subsection (a) commits a Class A misdemeanor, and the telegraph or telephone company so violating is liable in damages to the party aggrieved.

[Acts 1875, ch. 142, § 8; 1885, ch. 66, §§ 7, 8; 1907, ch. 134, § 1; Shan., §§ 1837, 1838, 2445; Code 1932, §§ 3101, 3102, 4058; modified; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), §§ 65-2114, 65-2115; Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 111.]