O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-42 (2019)

Refusal to relinquish telephone party line in case of emergency; false request on party line as to emergency; warning printed in telephone books

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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(a) A person is guilty of a misdemeanor when he fails to relinquish a telephone party line consisting of subscriber line telephone circuit with two or more main telephone stations connected therewith, each having a distinctive ring or telephone number, after he has been requested to do so to permit another to place a call in an emergency, in which property or human life is in jeopardy and the prompt summoning of aid is essential, to a fire or police department or for medical aid or ambulance service, if the party line at the time of the request is not being used for any such other emergency call. Any person who shall request the use of the party line by falsely stating that the same is needed for any of such purposes, knowing the statement to be false, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(b) In every telephone directory distributed to the general public in this state, in which is listed the call numbers of any telephones located within this state, except such as are distributed solely for business advertising purposes, commonly known as classified telephone directories, there shall be printed in type not smaller than the smallest type appearing on the same page, a notice setting forth the substance of subsection (a) of this Code section preceded by the word ‘‘warning’’ printed in boldface type.

History

(Ga. L. 1960, p. 915, §§ 1, 2; Code 1933, § 26-2912, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1.)

Annotations

RESEARCH REFERENCES ALR. - Liability of otherwise uninvolved person for harm resulting from refusal to telephone, or to allow another to

telephone, for emergency or police help, 37 A.L.R.4th 1196.