CHAPTER 470

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 8-633 and 8-684 of the Code of Virginia,
relating to actions for death by wrongful act. [H 580]

Approved March 29, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 8-633 and 8-634 of the Code of Virginia be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 8-633. Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by the
wrongful act, neglect, or default of any person or corporation, or of any
ship or vessel, and the act, neglect, or default is such as would, if death
had not ensued, have entitled the party injured to maintain an action, or
to proceed in rem against such ship or vessel or in personam against the
owners thereof or those having control of her, and to recover damages in
respect thereof, then, and in every such case, the person who, or corpora-
tion or ship or vessel which, would have been liable, if death had not
ensued, shall be liable to an action for damages, or, if a ship or vessel, to
a libel in rem, and her owners or those responsible for her acts or defaults
or negligence to a libel in personam, notwithstanding the death of the
person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such
circumstances, as amount in law to a felony. And any right of action
which may accrue by reason of such injury done to the person of another
shall survive the death of the wrongdoer, and may be enforced against his
executor or administrator, either by reviving against such personal repre-
sentative a suit which may have been brought against the wrongdoer him-
self in his lifetime, or by bringing an original suit against his personal
representative after his death whether or not the death of the wrongdoer
occurred before or after the death of the injured person.

Every action under this section shall be brought within * two years
after the death of the injured person, notwithstanding the provisions of
§ 8-24. However, the time within which such action shall be brought shall
not, as to any person who could be made a party defendant but who has
been without the State, and who could not be served within this State, be
construed to include the time such person is without the State; the absent-
ing of himself from the State by such a person shall be construed to be a
waiver of any such defense heretofore available to him.

The provisions of this section which change the time within which an
action may be brought from one year to two years shall not apply to any
such action arising prior to July one, nineteen hundred fifty-eight.

§ 8-634. Every such action shall be brought by and in the name of
the personal representative of such deceased person and within * two years
after his or her death, but if any such action is brought within such period
of * two years after such person’s death, and for any cause abates or is
dismissed without determining the merits of such action, the time such
action is pending shall not be counted as any part of such period of * two
years, and another suit may be brought within the remaining period of
such * ¢wo years as if such former suit had not been instituted. However,
the time within which such action shall be brought shall not, as to any
person who could be made a party defendant but who has been without the
State, and who could not be served within this State, be construed to
include the time such person is without the State; the absenting of himself
from this State by such a person shall be construed to be a waiver of any
such defense heretofore available to him. _, .

The provisions of this section which change the time within which an
action may be brought from one year to two years shall not apply to any
such action arising prior to July one, nineteen hundred and fifty-eight.