CHAPTER 483

An Act to amend and reenact § 8-658, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia, relating to notice to be given cities and towns of claims for
damages for negligence.

[H 423]

Approved March 31, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
.. That § 8-653, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
eenacted as follows:
_ § 8-653. No action shall be maintained against any city or town for
njury to any person or property or for wrongful death alleged to have
een sustained by reason of the negligence of the city or town, or of any
officer, agent or employee thereof, unless a written statement by the clair
ant, his agent, attorney or representative of the nature of the claim and a
the time and place at which the injury is alleged to have occurred or bee
received shall have been filed with the city attorney or town attorney, o
with the mayor, or chief executive, within sixty days after such cause a
action shall have accrued, except that when the claimant is an infant o
non compos mentis, or the injured party dies within such sixty days, suc!
statement may be filed within one hundred and twenty days, or if the com
plainant be compos mentis during the said sixty-day period but is able t
establish by a clear and convincing evidence that due to the injury sus
tained for which a claim is asserted that he was physically or mentall
unable to give such notice within the sixty-day period, then the tume fo:
giving notice shall be tolled until the claimant sufficiently recovers fron
said injury so as to be able to give such notice; and statements pursuan
to this section shall be valid, notwithstanding any contrary charter pro
vision of any city or town.

This section as amended shall take precedence over the provisions 0!
all charters and amendments thereto of municipal corporations in conflict
herewith heretofore granted. It is further declared that as to any such
future charter or amendment thereto that any provision therein in con-
flict with this section as amended shall be deemed to be invalid as being
in conflict with § 52 of the Constitution unless such conflict be stated in
the title to such proposed charter or amendment thereto by the words
‘conflicting with § 8-653 of the Code” or substantially similar language.