(A) The department and any utility as defined in Section 700 of this code may enter into a contract providing for or apportioning the obligations and costs to be borne by each party as to either or both of the following subject matters:

(1) Any or all removals or relocations of any utility facilities completed by the utility prior to the effective date of such contract as required by notice given by the department wherever necessary to accommodate any or all state freeways, where: (a) the obligations or costs in respect thereto to be borne by each party is in dispute; and (b) the claim of the utility is: (i) founded upon a removal or relocation completed by the utility not longer than three years immediately preceding the effective date of such contract; or (ii) involved in an action pending in a court of competent jurisdiction if such action was commenced within three years after completion by the utility of the removal or relocation in question; and

(2) Any or all removals or relocations of any utility facilities to be undertaken or completed by the utility after the effective date of such contract as required by notice given by the department wherever necessary to accommodate any or all state freeways.

(B) Those provisions of any such contract settling the claims of the parties in respect to any or all removals or relocations of any utility facilities completed by the utility prior to the effective date of such contract, as authorized in subdivision (A) (1) of this section, shall be irrevocable after the execution of such contract, except as the same may be changed or modified by mutual consent of the parties in writing; and either party may maintain an action in a court of competent jurisdiction upon such provisions of said contract at any time within two years after the effective date of such contract, and the utility need file no claim with any state agency as a condition precedent to the maintenance of any such action.

(C) Those provisions of any such contract dealing with any or all removals or relocations of any utility facilities to be undertaken or completed by the utility after the effective date of such contract, as authorized in subdivision (A) (2) of this section, shall be under and subject to the following limitations and requirements:

(1) While such provisions of said contract remain in effect, such provisions shall govern exclusively the determination of the obligations and costs to be borne by each party in regard to every removal or relocation covered thereby undertaken or completed by the utility after the effective date of such contract, whether notice in respect thereto was given by the department to the utility before or after the effective date of such contract, in lieu of the determination thereof under the foregoing provisions of this article as now or hereafter existing and any and all other laws which would be applicable to said subject matter but for said contract, save to the extent that any such laws may be referred to, retained, and made applicable by, such provisions of said contracts; provided: (a) where before the effective date of a contract entered into under this section the parties executed an agreement in respect to the obligations and costs to be borne by each party as to a particular removal or relocation under a notice given by the department, the provisions of such last mentioned agreement shall govern as to the obligations and costs to be borne by each party in respect thereto; and (b) where a particular notice given by the department before the effective date of a contract entered into under this section specifies a removal or relocation to be made at the expense of the utility, the utility shall be and remain bound thereby unless the utility advised the department in writing of its disagreement with such determination within the time specified in any agreement then in effect between the department and the utility in respect to the procedure to be followed in such cases, or, if none, within a reasonable time after receipt by the utility of said notice.

(2) Either party may maintain an action in a court of competent jurisdiction for an adjudication as to the obligations and costs to be borne by each party under such provisions of said contract at any time within four years after the cause of action first arose thereunder. Such a cause of action shall be deemed to arise upon and at the time of the completion by the utility of the removal or relocation in question. The filing of a claim with any state agency shall not be deemed a condition precedent to the maintenance by the utility of any such action.

(3) Such provisions of said contract shall terminate: (i) automatically upon the repeal of this section or of subdivisions (A) (2) and (C) hereof; and (ii) also, unless sooner so automatically terminated, at such time or in such manner as may be provided in said contract; and in the event of either such termination, the laws applicable to the subject matter of such provisions of said contract as existing at the time of such termination shall thereafter govern, save as to removals or relocations theretofore required of the utility by the department under notice mailed or delivered to the utility prior to such termination, whether work upon such removal or relocation has theretofore commenced, is in progress, or has been completed.

(Added by Stats. 1951, Ch. 824.)