Section 185507 Of Chapter 5. Relocation Of Utilities From California Public Utilities Code >> Division 19.5. >> Chapter 5.
185507
. (a) The authority and any utility as defined in Section
185500 may enter into a contract providing for or apportioning the
obligations and costs to be borne by each party as to either or both
of the following subject matters:
(1) Any or all removals or relocations of utility facilities
completed by the utility prior to the effective date of the contract
as required by notice given by the authority when necessary to
accommodate any or all state high-speed rail construction, where: (A)
the obligations or costs to be borne by each party for a removal or
relocation are in dispute; and (B) the claim of the utility is: (i)
founded upon a removal or relocation completed by the utility not
earlier than three years preceding the effective date of the
contract; or (ii) involved in an action pending in a court of
competent jurisdiction if the action was commenced within three years
after completion by the utility of the removal or relocation in
question.
(2) Any or all removals or relocations of utility facilities to be
undertaken or completed by the utility after the effective date of
the contract as required by notice given by the authority when
necessary to accommodate any or all state high-speed rail
construction.
(b) Those provisions of a contract authorized in paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) settling the claims of the parties in respect to
removals or relocations of utility facilities completed by the
utility prior to the effective date of the contract shall be
irrevocable after the execution of the contract, unless changed or
modified by mutual consent of the parties in writing. Either party
may maintain an action in a court of competent jurisdiction upon any
of the provisions of the contract at any time within two years after
the effective date of the contract, and the utility need not file a
claim with a state agency as a condition precedent to the maintenance
of an action under this subdivision.
(c) Those provisions of a contract dealing with removals or
relocations of utility facilities to be undertaken or completed by
the utility after the effective date of the contract, as authorized
in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a), shall be subject to the
following limitations and requirements:
(1) While the contract remains in effect, the contract shall
govern exclusively the determination of the obligations and costs to
be borne by each party in regard to any removal or relocation covered
by the contract and undertaken or completed by the utility after the
effective date of the contract, whether notice of the necessity of
the removal or relocation was given by the authority to the utility
before or after the effective date of the contract. This chapter, as
now or hereafter existing, and any and all other laws that would be
applicable to the subject matter but for the contract shall not
apply, except that laws may be referred to, retained, and made
applicable by the contract. This paragraph shall not apply in the
following circumstances:
(A) If, before the effective date of a contract entered into under
this section, the parties executed an agreement in respect to the
obligations and costs to be borne by each party as to a particular
removal or relocation under a notice given by the authority, the
provisions of such an agreement shall govern as to the obligations
and costs to be borne by each party in respect to that particular
removal or relocation.
(B) If a particular notice given by the authority before the
effective date of a contract entered into under this section includes
a determination that a removal or relocation is to be made at the
expense of the utility, the utility shall be bound by that notice
unless the utility advised the authority in writing of its
disagreement with the determination within the time specified in an
agreement then in effect between the authority and the utility in
respect to the procedure to be followed in those cases, or, if there
is no such agreement, within a reasonable time after receipt by the
utility of the notice.
(2) Either party may maintain an action in a court of competent
jurisdiction for an adjudication as to the obligations and costs to
be borne by each party under the contract at any time within four
years after the cause of action first arose. The cause of action
shall be deemed to arise at the time of the completion by the utility
of the removal or relocation in question. The filing of a claim with
a state agency shall not be deemed a condition precedent to the
maintenance by the utility of an action under this paragraph.
(3) The contract shall terminate upon the repeal of this section,
the repeal of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) and subdivision (c),
or at the time or in the manner as may be provided in the contract.
In the event of termination under this paragraph, the laws applicable
to the subject matter of the contract existing at the time of
termination shall thereafter govern, except that the terms of the
contract shall continue to apply to removals or relocations required
of the utility by the authority under notice mailed or delivered to
the utility prior to the termination, whether work upon the removal
or relocation has already commenced, is in progress, or has been
completed.