16 - Assignment of contracts and orders for public improvement to be filed.

§  16. Assignment of contracts and orders for public improvement to be  filed. No assignment of a contract for the performance of labor  or  the  furnishing  of  materials  for a public improvement, or of the money, or  any part thereof, due, or to become due, therefor, nor an order drawn by  the contractor or sub-contractor upon the  public  corporation,  or  the  head  of  the  department or bureau having charge of the construction or  demolition of such public improvement, or the financial officer  of  the  public  corporation, or other officer or person charged with the custody  and disbursement of the corporate funds applicable to the  contract  for  such public improvement, shall be valid unless such assignment or order,  or  a  copy  thereof, be filed within twenty days after the date of such  assignment of contract, or such assignment of money, or such order, with  the head of the department or bureau having charge of such  construction  or  demolition, and with the financial officer of the public corporation  or other officer or person charged with the custody and disbursement  of  the   corporate  funds  applicable  to  the  contract  for  such  public  improvement, and such assignment or  order  shall  have  effect  and  be  enforceable  from  the  time  of  such filing, and no such assignment or  order shall have any validity until the same shall have been  so  filed,  and  every such assignment or order, not filed, shall be absolutely void  as against  a  subsequent  assignee  in  good  faith  and  for  valuable  consideration,  whose  assignment  or  order  is  first  duly filed. The  financial officer of the public corporation, or other officer or  person  with  whom  the assignment order, or copy thereof, is filed, shall enter  the facts relating to the same in the lien book or other  book  provided  for such purpose.