§ 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.