CHAPTER 279

An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered
11-28, relating to bonds on public contracts to which any county, city,
town, school board, or agency thereof, is a party, and to secure the
protection of those supplying labor or furnishing materials on such
contracts.

{fH 132]

Approved March 15, 1954

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding a section numbered
11-23 as follows:

§ 11-23. No contract, in excess of twenty-five hundred dollars, to
which any county, city, town, school board, or any agency thereof, is a
party, for the construction, improvement, or repair of any dwelling, school,
auditorium or other building, highway, bridge, street, sidewalk, sewer,
reservoir, dam, dock, wharf, draining, dredging, excavation, or other con-
struction work, shall be entered into unless and until the person
contracting to construct, improve or repair the work shall have entered
into a bond with surety approved as hereinafter provided, for at least the
sum estimated to be the cost of the work, payable to such county, city,
town, school board, or agency thereof, and to the persons performing
labor and furnishing materials, conditioned upon the faithful performance
of the contract in strict conformity to the plans, specifications and condi-
tions of said contract, and conditioned further upon the payment to all
persons performing labor and furnishing materials in the prosecution of
such work as is required by the contract. Every such bond shall be
approved by the attorney for such county, city or town, as the case may
be, and every such bond shall be construed, regardless of its language,
as incorporating, within its provisions, the obligations to faithfully per-
form the contract and to pay those persons who perform labor and furnish
materials on the work.

Every person who performs labor and furnishes materials on a con-
tract covered by this section shall have a direct right of action against
the obligor and sureties on such bond; but no action shall be brought unless
within two years after substantial completion of the contract.