(a) A judicial action or proceeding to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul an ordinance, resolution, motion, or contract adopting, or increasing, a fee described in this part, or adopting or changing the terms and conditions of access subject to this part, or an automatic adjustment that results in an increase in the amount of a fee described in this part, shall be commenced within 120 days of the effective date of the ordinance, resolution, motion, contract, or automatic adjustment.

(b) An action by a local publicly owned electric utility or interested person shall be brought pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 860) of Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

Terms Used In California Public Utilities Code 9518

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which that term occurs unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Public Utilities Code 10
  • Utility pole: means an electricity or telephone pole, but does not include a street light pole or an electricity pole used solely for the transmission of electricity at 50 kilovolts or higher and not intended for distribution of communications signals or electricity at lower voltages. See California Public Utilities Code 9510.5

(c) A person or entity shall not initiate an action or proceeding pursuant to subdivision (a) unless both of the following requirements are met:

(1) The fee or requirement will be directly imposed on the person or entity as a condition for the use of a utility pole or support structure, or the entity is a trade association that represents that person or entity.

(2) At least 30 days before initiating the action or proceeding, the person or entity, or trade association representing that person or entity, requests the local publicly owned electric utility to provide a copy of documents that purport to establish that the fee does not exceed the amount reasonably necessary to cover the cost of the use of the utility pole or support structure, consistent with this part, or that the term and conditions of access or change to the terms and conditions of access are reasonable. The local publicly owned electric utility may charge a fee for the direct costs of copying the documents requested pursuant to this paragraph.

(d) An action to enforce this part shall be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction.

(Added by Stats. 2011, Ch. 580, Sec. 2. (AB 1027) Effective January 1, 2012.)

  Previous section
Next section  
 Part 2 Contents