Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 77 - PUBLIC UTILITIES AND CARRIERS (§§ 77-1-1 — 77-NEW-NEW-004) › Chapter 3 - REGULATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES (§§ 77-3-NEW — 77-3-809) › Article 1 - CERTIFICATES OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY; RATES; SERVICE (§§ 77-3-NEW — 77-3-99) › Section 77-3-22 - Placement of privately owned water and sewer systems in receivership; conditions

Notwithstanding Section
77-3-1(1)
, if the commission determines that any privately owned water and/or sewer system, or any municipally owned or operated electric utility providing service greater than one (1) mile outside its municipal boundaries and within its jurisdiction is unable or unwilling to adequately serve its customers or has been actually or effectively abandoned by its owner, or that its management is grossly inefficient, irresponsible or unresponsive to the needs of its customers, the commission or its designated representative may petition the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County or the chancery court of any county wherein the public utility does business for an order attaching the assets of the privately owned water and/or sewer system or municipally owned or operated electric utility and placing such system under the sole control and responsibility of a receiver. If the court determines that the petition is proper in all respects and finds, after a hearing thereon, the allegations contained in the petition are true, it shall order that the system be placed in receivership. The court, in its discretion and in consideration of the recommendation of the commission or its designated representative, may appoint a receiver who shall be a responsible individual, partnership, corporation or political subdivision knowledgeable in water , sewer or electric service affairs and who shall maintain control and responsibility for the operation and management of the affairs of such system. The receiver shall operate the system so as to preserve the assets of the system and to serve the best interests of its customers. The receiver shall be compensated from the assets of the system in an amount to be determined by the court.
Control of and responsibility for the system shall remain in the receiver until the court determines that it is in the best interests of the customers that the system be returned to the owner, transferred to another owner or assumed by another operator, system or public service corporation. If the court, after hearing, determines that control of and responsibility for the affairs of the system should not be returned to the legal owner thereof, the receiver may proceed to liquidate the assets of such system in the manner provided by law.
In any court-initiated receivership for a municipally owned or operated electric utility providing service greater than one (1) mile outside its municipal boundaries, the receiver shall assume the responsibilities and obligations of the municipality with regard to any existing wholesale power contract.
Mississippi laws and Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure generally applicable to receivership shall govern receiverships created under this section.
This section is in addition to the provisions of Section
77-3-21
.
Laws, 1992, ch. 417, § 10; Laws, 1995, ch. 367, § 1, eff. 3/15/1995.
Amended by Laws, 2024, ch. 315, SB 2453,§ 2, eff. 4/8/2024.