§ 95. Reports of telegraph corporations and telephone corporations. 1. Every telegraph corporation and every telephone corporation shall file with the commission an annual report at a time and covering the yearly period fixed by the commission. Such annual reports shall be verified by the oath of the president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, general manager or receiver if any of such corporations, or by the person required to file the same. Verification shall be made by the official holding office at the time of the filing of said report, and if not made upon the knowledge of the person verifying the same shall set forth in general terms the sources of his information and the grounds for his belief as to any matters not stated to be verified on his knowledge. The commission shall prescribe the form of such reports and the character of the information to be contained therein and may, from time to time make such changes and additions in regard to form and contents thereof as it may deem proper and shall furnish a blank form for such annual reports to every telegraph corporation and every telephone corporation required to make the same. When the report of any telegraph corporation or telephone corporation is defective or erroneous the commission shall notify the corporation to amend the same within a time prescribed by the commission. The said reports shall be preserved in the office of the commission. The commission may require of any telegraph corporation or telephone corporation specific answers to questions upon which the commission may desire information. If any telegraph corporation or telephone corporation shall fail to make and file its annual report as and when required or within such extended time as the commission may allow or shall fail to make specific answers to any question within the period specified by the commission for the making and filing of such answers, such corporation shall forfeit to the state the sum of one hundred dollars for each and every day it shall continue to be in default with respect to such report or answer. Such forfeiture shall be recovered in an action brought by the commission in the name of the people of the state of New York. The amount recovered in any such action shall be paid into the state treasury and shall be credited to the general fund. The commission may, when it deems it advisable, exempt any telegraph corporation or telephone corporation from the necessity of filing annual reports until the further order of the commission.
2. The commission may establish a system of accounts to be used by telegraph corporations and telephone corporations, which are subject to its jurisdiction, and are required to make annual reports to it or classify the said corporations, and prescribe a system of accounts for each class and may prescribe the manner in which such accounts shall be kept. It may also, in its discretion prescribe the form of records to be kept by such corporation. Notice of alterations by the commission in the required method or form of keeping accounts shall be given to such corporations by the commission at least six months before the same are to take effect. The commission shall at all times have access to all accounts, records and memoranda kept by telegraph corporations and telephone corporations, and may designate any of its officers or employees who shall thereupon be authorized under the order of the commission to inspect and examine any and all accounts, records and memoranda kept by any such corporation; and the commission may, after a hearing, prescribe by order, the accounts in which particular outlays and receipts shall be entered, charged or credited. At any such hearing the burden of proof shall be on the corporation to establish the correctness of the accounts in which such outlays and receipts have been entered and the commission may suspend a charge or credit pending submission of proof by such corporation. Any provision of law prohibiting the disclosure of the contents of telegraph messages or the contents or substance of telephone communications shall not be deemed to prohibit the disclosure of any matter in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
3. In the case of a telephone corporation having property actually used in the public service within the state of a value of less than ten thousand dollars and operated for profit, the commission may and wherever it deems it practicable shall prescribe a simplified system of accounts and reports suitable to the character and activities of the telephone corporation regulated.
