66-127. Dealing in securities of competing utility; prohibited transportation; exemption for certain utilities. No common carrier or public utility governed by the provisions of this act, domestic or foreign, shall hereafter purchase or acquire, take or hold any part of the capital stock, bonds or other forms of indebtedness of any competing public utility or common carrier, either as owner or pledgee, unless authorized by the commission. Any common carrier engaged in intrastate commerce in this state is prohibited in the transportation of such commerce, articles or commodities under the following circumstances and conditions:

(a) When the article or commodity has been manufactured, mined or produced by a carrier or under its authority and at the time of the transportation the carrier has not in good faith, before the act of transportation, disassociated itself from such article or commodity;

(b) when the carrier owns the article or commodity to be transported, in whole or part;

(c) when the common carrier at the time of transportation has a legal or equitable interest, directly or indirectly, in the article or commodity, except materials and supplies for its own use.

Every public utility is prohibited from engaging in any business in this state which is not in conformity with its charter or in which it is not permitted to engage under the laws of the state of Kansas, except that this section shall not apply to ownership by railroads of the stock, bonds, or other forms of indebtedness of union depot or terminal railroad properties used in common by two or more such railroads. The provisions of this section shall not apply to resellers of telecommunications services, local exchange carriers that have elected price cap regulation pursuant to subsection (b) of K.S.A. 66-2005, and amendments thereto, unless a transaction subject to this section is solely between such carrier and a local exchange carrier that has elected rate of return regulation pursuant to subsection (b) of K.S.A. 66-2005, and amendments thereto, operating wholly within this state, or interexchange carriers.

History: L. 1911, ch. 238, § 27; R.S. 1923, 66-127; L. 1996, ch. 268, § 19; L. 2008, ch. 146, § 1; July 1.