77-7-61 - Sale or transfer of certificates and permits.
§ 77-7-61. Sale or transfer of certificates and permits.
(1) It shall be lawful, under the conditions specified below, for motor carriers to sell, assign, lease or transfer certificates or permits issued to them under the provisions of this chapter.
Whenever a purchase, lease, assignment or transfer is proposed under this section, the carrier or carriers or the person seeking authority therefor shall present an application to the commission in the form that may be prescribed by the commission, and thereupon the commission shall notify the applicant or applicants and other parties known to have a substantial interest in the proceedings of the time and place for a public hearing should the purchase, lease, assignment or transfer be protested or the commission otherwise requires one, not less than twenty (20) days prior thereto. If, after the hearing, the commission finds that the transaction proposed is in good faith, that the proposed assignee, lessee, purchaser or transferee is fit and able properly to perform the transportation services authorized by such certificate or permit and to comply with the rules, regulations and requirements of the commission, and that the transaction is otherwise consistent with the public interest, it may enter an order approving and authorizing sale, lease, assignment or transfer upon terms and conditions as it shall find to be just and reasonable and with modifications as it may prescribe.
It shall be unlawful for any person, except as provided in this section, to accomplish or effectuate, or to participate in the accomplishing and effectuating, the sale, lease, assignment or transfer of a certificate or permit, however the result is attained.
(2) The commission is hereby authorized, upon complaint or upon its own initiative, to investigate and determine whether any person is violating the provisions of the preceding paragraph of this section.
(3) Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, the certificates as applied for may be granted without a hearing in uncontested cases; however, the commission may hear any uncontested case if it determines that the public interest will be served thereby.
Sources: Codes, 1942, § 7652; Laws, 1938, ch. 142; Laws, 1987, ch. 309, § 5; Laws, 1993, ch 561, § 9, eff from and after October 1, 1993.