Chap. 196.—An ACT to amend and reenact Section 9 of Chapter 403 of the
Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia of 1922, approved March 24, 1922,
as amended, the chapter creating the State Highway Commission and relatin
to other matters, the section relating to contracts. {H 159)

Approved March 12, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section nine of chapter four hundred three of the Acts
of the General Assembly of Virginia of nineteen hundred twenty-
two, approved March twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred twenty-two,
as amended, be amended and reenacted as follows:

Section 9. Every contractor whose bid is accepted, shall, before
commencing work, enter into a contract with the chairman, which
contract shall fully set out the time when the work shall commence
and when the contract shall be completed, as well as the time and
the manner for the payment for the work, and the chairman shall
require that a fixed percentage of the contract price, or a certain
fixed sum, shall not be paid to the contractor until after the expira-
tion of some certain date, to be fixed by the chairman, from the
completion of the work and the acceptance thereof.

No suit or action shall be brought against the Department: of
Highways, Commonwealth of Virginia, by any contractor or any
persons claiming under him, on any contract executed pursuant to
this act, unless the same shall be brought within one year after
the completion of the work on the project to the satisfaction of the
Chief Engineer, Department of Highways.

No claim arising from the prosecution of the project by the
contractor, shall be maintained against the Commonwealth of
Virginia unless such claim shall have been filed at the office of the
Department of Highways, at Richmond, Virginia, within ninety
days after the completion of the work thereunder to the satisfaction
of the said Chief Engineer. Suit or action must be brought there-
on within one year after such completion of the work on the project,
and not thereafter.

The failure to file any such claim heretofore or hereafter arising
within the period herein provided shall not, however, affect any
right of action against the contractor or his surety.