Chap. 435.—An ACT to amend the Code of Virginia by adding thereto a new sec-
tion to be numbered section 6429-a, so as to provide, in the mechanics’ lien
law, how the owner or general contractor may be made personally liable to
subcontractors, laborers, or material men. (H B 94]

Approved March 21, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
Code of Virginia be amended by adding thereto a new section to be
numbered section sixty-four hundred and twenty-nine-a, so as to pro-
vide, in the mechanics’ lien law, how the owner or general contractor
may be made personally liable to subcontractors, laborers, or material
men, which said new section shall read as follows:

Section 6429-a. How owner or general contractor made personally
liable to subcontractors, laborer or material man.—Any subcontractor
or person furnishing labor or material to the general contractor or sub-
contractor, may give notice in writing to the owner or his agent or the
general contractor, stating the nature and character of his contract and
the probable amount of his claim, and if such subcontractor, or person
furnishing labor or material shall at any time after the work is done or
material furnished by him and before the expiration of thirty days from
the time such building or structure is completed or the work thereon
otherwise terminated furnish the owner thereof or his agent and also
the general contractor, or the general contractor alone in case he is the
only one notified, with a correct account, verified by affidavit, of his
claim against the general contractor or subcontractor, for work done
or materials furnished and of the amount due, the owner, or the general
contractor, if he alone was notified, shall be personally liable to the
claimant for the amount due to said subcontractor or persons furnish-
ing labor or material by said general contractor or subcontractor, pro-
vided the same does not exceed the sum in which the owner is indebted
to the general contractor at the time the notice is given or may there-
after become indebted by virtue of his contract with said general con-
tractor, or in case the general contractor alone is notified the sum in
which he is indebted to the subcontractor at the time the notice is
given or may thereafter become indebted by virtue of his contract with
said general contractor. But the amount which a person supplying
labor or material to a subcontractor. can claim shall not exceed the
amount for which such subcontractor could file his claim.

Any bona fide agreement for deductions by the owner because of
the failure or refusal of the general contractor to comply with his con-
tract shall be binding upon such subcontractor, laborer or material
man.

But the foregoing provisions of this section are subject to the follow-
ing qualification, that before any such personal liability of the owner or
general contractor as is herein provided for shall be binding, the notice
herein required, with such return thereon as is sufficient under section
six thousand and forty-one of the Code of Virginia, shall be recorded
in the miscellaneous lien book in the appropriate clerk’s office.