Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/337

 209 U. & Oilion of the Court. 168; Sutherland, Statutory Construction, 1158, 1161; Wade,- Retroactive Law, �; United States v. Am-ican Sugar Co., 202 U.S. 563, 577; UnitdStat v. Herb, 3 Cranch, 413. While the general principles above considered have not always been applied with the same strictness to statutes re- lating to procedure and practice, even in respect to such stat- utes the intention of the legislature is just as important and binding upon the courts as in reference to any others. Wade on Retroactive Law, �8, 39. See also to the same effect: P/erc v. Cabot, 159 Massachu- setts, 202; $ha//ow v. Salem, 136 Massachusetts, 136; Eddy v. Morgan, 216 Illinois, 437; Aud/tor Gen. v. Chandler, 108 Michi- gan, 569; Bd/er v. Fu//er, 116 Michigan, 126. There is nothing in the act itself that indicates the intention that the provisions in reference to practice and remedy were intended by Congress to operate retrospectively. MR. JUSCE PECKHAM, after maldng the foregoing state- ment, delivered the pinion of the court. The demurrer put in by the plaintiff in error is founded upon an amendmcnt of the above mentioned act, which, it is con- tended, applies to the case before us. The amendment is set forth in the margin. l Chapter 778, 33 Stat., p. 811: "Bs it ewted, etc., That the act entitled 'An Act for the protection of pemons furnishing materials and labor for the construction of public works,' approved August thirteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, is hereby amended so as to read as follows: �"That hereafter any person or persons entering into a formal contract with the United States for the construction of any public building, or the prnsecution and completion of any public work, or for repairs upon any public building, or public work, shall be required, before commencing such work, to execute the usual penal bond, with good and sufficient sureties, with the additional obligation that such contractor or contractors shall' promptly make payments to all persons supplying him r them with labor and materials in the prosecution of the work provided for in such contract; and any person, company or corporation who has furnished labor or materi- als uzed in the construction or repair of any public building or public work,

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