AN ACT Relating to public utilities; amending RCW 80.28.080; adding a new section to chapter 80.28 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 80.28 RCW to read as follows:

(1) A utility may bring a civil action for damages against any person who commits, authorizes, solicits, aids, abets, or attempts to:

(a) Divert, or cause to be diverted, utility services by any means whatsoever;

(b) Make, or cause to be made, any connection or reconnection with property owned or used by the utility to provide utility service without the authorization or consent of the utility;

(c) Prevent any utility meter or other device used in determining the charge for utility services from accurately performing its measuring function by tampering or by any other means;

(d) Tamper with any property owned or used by the utility to provide utility services; or

(e) Use or receive the direct benefit of all or a portion of the utility service with knowledge of, or reason to believe that, the diversion, tampering, or unauthorized connection existed at the time of the use or that the use or receipt was without the authorization or consent of the utility.

(2) In any civil action brought under this section, the utility may recover as damages three times the amount of actual damages, if any, plus the cost of the suit and reasonable attorney's fees, plus the costs incurred on account of the bypassing, tampering, or unauthorized reconnection, including but not limited to costs and expenses for investigation, disconnection, reconnection, service calls, and expert witnesses.

(3) There is a rebuttable presumption that there is a violation of this section if, on premises controlled by the customer or by the person using or receiving the direct benefit of utility service, there is either, or both, of the following:

(a) Any instrument, apparatus, or device primarily designed to be used to obtain utility service without paying the full lawful charge therefor; or

(b) Any meter that has been altered, tampered with, or bypassed so as to cause no measurement or inaccurate measurement of utility services.

(4) Any damages recovered under this section in excess of the actual damages sustained by the utility may be taken into account by the utilities and transportation commission or other applicable rate-making agency in establishing utility rates.

(5) As used in this section:

(a) "Customer" means the person in whose name a utility service is provided;

(b) "Divert" means to change the intended course or path of electricity, gas, or water without the authorization or consent of the utility;

(d) "Reconnection" means the commencement of utility service to a customer or other person after service has been lawfully disconnected by the utility;

(e) "Tamper" means to rearrange, injure, alter, interfere with, or otherwise prevent from performing the normal or customary function;

(f) "Utility" means any electrical company, gas company, or water company as those terms are defined in RCW 80.04.010, and includes any electrical, gas, or water system operated by any public agency; and

(g) "Utility service" means the provision of electricity, gas, water, or any other service or commodity furnished by the utility for compensation.

Sec. 2. Section 80.28.080, chapter 14, Laws of 1961 as amended by section 116, chapter 154, Laws of 1973 1st ex. sess. and RCW 80.28.080 are each amended to read as follows:

No gas company, electrical company or water company shall charge, demand, collect or receive a greater or less or different compensation for any service rendered or to be rendered than the rates and charges applicable to such service as specified in its schedule filed and in effect at the time, nor shall any such company directly or indirectly refund or remit in any manner or by any device any portion of the rates or charges so specified, or furnish its product at free or reduced rates except to its employees and their families, and its officers, attorneys, and agents; to hospitals, charitable and eleemosynary institutions and persons engaged in charitable and eleemosynary work; to indigent and destitute persons; to national homes or state homes for disabled volunteer soldiers and soldiers' and sailors' homes: PROVIDED, That the term "employees" as used in this paragraph shall include furloughed, pensioned and superannuated employees, persons who have become disabled or infirm in the service of any such company; and the term "families," as used in this paragraph, shall include the families of those persons named in this proviso, the families of persons killed or dying in the service, also the families of persons killed, and the surviving spouse prior to remarriage, and the minor children during minority of persons who died while in the service of any of the companies named in this paragraph: ((~~AND~~)) PROVIDED((,)) FURTHER, That water companies may furnish free or at reduced rates water for the use of the state, or for any project in which the state is interested: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That gas companies, electrical companies, and water companies may charge for treble damages awarded in lawsuits successfully litigated under section 1 of this 1985 act.

No gas company, electrical company or water company shall extend to any person or corporation any form of contract or agreement or any rule or regulation or any privilege or facility except such as are regularly and uniformly extended to all persons and corporations under like circumstances.