Here at Musings, the contract is king and most of the time, the Virginia state and federal courts will not imply a right of action from a statute that does not specifically create one. Furthermore, as a general rule, contracts are strictly enforced and their terms upheld absent a statute that states otherwise.
One such statute is the Virginia Public Procurement Act (“VPPA”) a statute that has it’s terms implied into public construction contracting documents by operation of law.
The Western District of Virginia federal court restated this fact in a recent opinion, South End Constructors Inc. v. Tom Brunton Masonry Inc. In this case, a masonry contractor sued South End Constructors, Inc. for, among other things, withholding more retainage (10%) under its contract with its subcontractor than the VPPA allows (5%). South End moved to dismiss this count of the Complaint stating that the VPPA does not create a private right of action. The federal district court agreed and dismissed the offending count.
Of course, this case would not be particularly interesting had the Court merely stopped there.
