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2000 SESSION

004606736
HOUSE BILL NO. 1028
Offered January 24, 2000
A BILL to amend and reenact § 8.01-243 of the Code of Virginia, relating to Accrual of actions.
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Patron-- Drake
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Referred to Committee on General Laws
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 8.01-243 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 8.01-243. Personal action for injury to person or property generally; extension in actions for malpractice against health care provider.

A. Unless otherwise provided in this section or by other statute, every action for personal injuries, whatever the theory of recovery, and every action for damages resulting from fraud, shall be brought within two years after the cause of action accrues.

B. Every action for injury to property, including actions by a parent or guardian of an infant against a tort-feasor for expenses of curing or attempting to cure such infant from the result of a personal injury or loss of services of such infant, shall be brought within five years after the cause of action accrues.

C. The two-year limitations period specified in subsection A shall be extended in actions for malpractice against a health care provider as follows:

1. In cases arising out of a foreign object having no therapeutic or diagnostic effect being left in a patient's body, for a period of one year from the date the object is discovered or reasonably should have been discovered; and

2. In cases in which fraud, concealment or intentional misrepresentation prevented discovery of the injury within the two-year period, for one year from the date the injury is discovered or, by the exercise of due diligence, reasonably should have been discovered.

However, the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to extend the limitations period beyond ten years from the date the cause of action accrues, except that the provisions of § 8.01-229 A 2 shall apply to toll the statute of limitations in actions brought by or on behalf of a person under a disability.

D. In the case of any person licensed as a real estate broker, salesperson or rental location agent pursuant to Chapter 21 (§ 54.1-2100 et seq.) of Title 54.1 who documents, in relationship to the relevant property built on or before 1978, (i) disclosure, in compliance with federal law and regulations, of material facts to any prospective purchaser or tenant concerning any lead hazard or contamination, (ii) that he has provided the prospective purchaser or tenant with educational material on the risks of exposure to lead, particularly for children, and (iii) that he has complied with the Essential Practices and Standard Treatments established by the federal Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction and Financing Task Force, any cause of action for lead poisoning brought by such prospective buyer or tenant shall begin to accrue on the day that the prospective buyer or tenant occupies the relevant property.