Penal Law § 270.15 · Article 270. Other Offenses Relating to Public Safety
Unlawfully refusing to yield a party line
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 270.15 Unlawfully refusing to yield a party line.
1. As used in this section:
(a) "Party line" means a subscriber's line telephone circuit, consisting of two or more main telephone stations connected therewith, each station with a distinctive ring or telephone number.
(b) "Emergency call" means a telephone call to a police or fire department, or for medical aid or ambulance service, necessitated by a situation in which human life or property is in jeopardy and prompt summoning of aid is essential.
2. A person is guilty of unlawfully refusing to yield a party line when, being informed that a party line is needed for an emergency call, he refuses immediately to relinquish such line.
Unlawfully refusing to yield a party line is a class B misdemeanor.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN270.15
- Text hash
- sha256 0e038cb70e690f91ee7145b9a027c173b2e8faa00f37043dd800a1b64b24ad79
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.