2012 New York Consolidated Laws
TCP - Transportation Corporations
Article 3 - (25 - 31) TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATIONS.
28 - Transmission of dispatches.

 
    § 28. Transmission of dispatches. Every such corporation shall receive
  dispatches   from   and  for  other  telegraph  or  telephone  lines  or
  corporations, and from and for any person, and on payment of  the  usual
  charges  for  transmitting  dispatches  as  established by the rules and
  regulations of such corporation, transmit the same with impartiality and
  good faith and in the order in  which  they  are  received,  and  if  it
  neglects or refuses so to do, it shall pay one hundred dollars for every
  such  refusal  or  neglect to the person sending or desiring to send any
  such dispatch and entitled to have it so transmitted,  but  arrangements
  may  be  made  with  the proprietors or publishers or newspapers for the
  transmission for publication  of  intelligence  of  general  and  public
  interest out of its regular order.