Opinion ID: 1410756
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: It is first asserted that the decision of the Court of Appeal in Mason v. Western Union Telegraph Co. (1975) 52 Cal. App.3d 429 [125 Cal. Rptr. 53] (hg. den.) casts serious doubt upon the Commission's power to discontinue telephone service for illegal use thereof. We do not so read the Mason case, which in our view holds no more than that a telegraph company may not be held civilly liable for sending a message alleged to be libelous, such a communication falling within the privilege set forth in Civil Code section 47, subdivision 3. Indeed the opinion, through its citation and discussion of Public Utilities Code section 7904, strongly implies that such service may be refused for messages deemed to be calculated . . to instigate or encourage the perpetration of any unlawful act. (§ 7904.) Petitioner's contention wholly ignores the clear implication of our Sokol decision, wherein we indicated that although the Commission rule there in question  which permitted a utility to summarily discontinue service without authorization and without provision for prompt challenge by the subscriber  could not withstand constitutional scrutiny, a procedure which properly remedied those deficiencies would indeed pass constitutional muster and would lie within the jurisdiction of the Commission to promulgate and enforce.