New York Laws
Article 9 - Contracts
137 - Bond to Secure Payment of Certain Claims Arising From a Public Improvement; Enforcement.

(b) Except as provided in section two hundred twenty-g of the labor
law, no action on a payment bond furnished pursuant to this section
shall be commenced after the expiration of one year from the date on
which the public improvement has been completed and accepted by the
public owner.
(c) In any action on a payment bond furnished pursuant to this
section, any judgment in favor of a subcontractor or material supplier
may include provision for the payment of interest upon the amount
recovered from the date when demand for payment was made pursuant to the
labor and material payment bond and provided further that the court may
determine and award reasonable attorney's fee to either party to such
action when, upon reviewing the entire record, it appears that either
the original claim or the defense interposed to such claim is without
substantial basis in fact or law.
5. (a) The expression "furnishes material" or other similar expression
wherever used in this section shall be deemed to include the reasonable
rental value for the period of actual use of machinery, tools or
equipment, and the value of compressed gases furnished for welding or
cutting, and the value of fuel and lubricants consumed by machinery
operating on the improvement, or by motor vehicles owned, operated or
controlled by the contractor or his subcontractors while engaged
exclusively in the transportation of materials to or from the
improvement for the purposes thereof.
(b) The expression "moneys due to persons furnishing labor to the
contractor or his subcontractors" includes all sums payable to or on
behalf of persons furnishing labor to the contractor or his
subcontractors, for wages, health, welfare, non-occupational disability,
retirement, vacation benefits, holiday pay, life insurance or other
benefits, payment of which is required pursuant to the labor law or by
the contract in connection with which the bond is furnished or by a
collective bargaining agreement between organized labor and the
contractor or subcontractor, and which are computed upon labor performed
in the prosecution of the contract. A trustee or other person authorized
to collect such payments shall have the right to sue on the payment bond
in his own name and subject to the same conditions as if he were the
person performing the labor upon which such sums are computed.

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