Every officer, agent, or employee of any company under the jurisdiction of the commission who violates or procures, aids, or abets any violation by any such company of any provision of this title; or who fails to obey, observe, or comply with any order of the commission; or who aids or abets any such company in its failure to obey, observe, and comply with any such order, direction, or provision, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Such officer, agent, or employee shall be subject to prosecution in any county in which the company or the officer, agent, or employee violates any provision of this title or any provision of any order of the commission, or in any county through which the company operates. Such officer, agent, or employee shall also be subject to prosecution under this title in any county in which a subordinate agent or employee of the company violates any provision of this title, by the approval or direction, or in consequence of the approval or direction, of such officer, agent, or employee; and the agent or employee who locally in any county violates the rules or directions of said commission pursuant to the direction or authority of a superior officer may be called as a witness and be compelled to testify as to the authority by which he acted. Such testimony shall not be used against such subordinate employee or agent, nor shall he thereafter be subject to prosecution for said offense.
(Ga. L. 1907, p. 72, § 13; Civil Code 1910, § 2668; Penal Code 1910, § 527; Code 1933, § 93-9901; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 46.)
Cross references.- Prohibition against compelled self-incrimination, Ga. Const. 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Para. XVI.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Penalty provisions apply only after commission order found lawful.
- Where judicial review is timely sought, the penalty provisions of the law apply only to subsequent violations after the order of the commission has been judicially established to be a lawful order. Southern Ry. v. Georgia Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 218 Ga. 157, 127 S.E.2d 12 (1962).
Cited in Wight v. Pelham & H.R.R., 18 Ga. App. 195, 89 S.E. 176 (1916); Savannah Elec. Co. v. Lowe, 27 Ga. App. 350, 108 S.E. 313 (1921); Jenkins v. State, 65 Ga. App. 16, 14 S.E.2d 594 (1941); Georgia Power Co. v. Georgia Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 211 Ga. 223, 85 S.E.2d 14 (1954); Gas Light Co. v. Georgia Power Co., 313 F. Supp. 860 (M.D. Ga. 1970).