CHAPTER 614
An Act to amend and reenact §§ 8-641, 8-642, 8-645, and 8-646, of the
Code of Virginia, relating to injuries to railroad employees. rH 849]

Approved April 6, 1954
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 8-641, 8-642, 8-645, and 8-646, of the Code of Virginia be
amended and reenacted, as follows:

§ 8-641. Every common carrier by railroad engaged in intrastate
commerce * shall be liable in damages to any of its employees suffering
injury while employed by such carrier or, in the case of the death of any
such employee, to his personal representative, for such injury or death,
resulting in whole or in part from the wrongful act or neglect of any of its
officers, agents, servants, or employees, or by reason of any defect, or
insufficiency due to its neglect in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery,
track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves or other equipment, except when
such employee is injured while engaged in interstate commerce, and except
when such employee is injured in the course of his regular employment
and such regular employment does not expose such employee to the hazards
incident to the maintenance, use and operation of such railroad. If the
action be for the death of an employee, §§ 8-634 to 8-640 shall apply
thereto so far as applicable and when not in conflict herewith. No action
shall be maintained under this section unless it be commenced within *
two years from the date the cause of action accrued.

§ 8-642. In all actions * brought against any such common carrier
to recover damages for personal injuries to any employee or when such
injuries have resulted in his death the fact that such employee may have
been guilty of contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery, but the
damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of
negligence attributable to such employee; and no such employee, who may
be injured or killed, shall be held to have been guilty of contributory
negligence in any case when the violation by such common carrier of any
statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or
death of such employee.

§ 8-645. The term “common carrier” as used in the four preceding
sections shall include the receivers or other persons or corporations charged
with the duty of the management or operation of the business of a common
carrier by railroad; * but shall not include persons, firms or corporations
owning or operating * railroads when such railroads are primarily and
chiefly used as incidental to the operation of coal, gypsum or iron mines
or eri mills, nor shall it apply to any railroad owned or operated by any
county.

§ 8-646. The * motion for judgment or other pleading in any such
action may embrace a cause of action growing out of any act of Congress
of the United States of America for such injury or death, without being
demurrable on this account, and without the plaintiff being required to
elect under which statute he claims. The five preceding sections shall not
apply to electric railways operated wholly within this State.