TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:
This appeal arises out of a multi-district litigation, in which multiple plaintiffs and their family members allege that they experienced various health problems after being exposed to toxic substances in the drinking water while living at Camp Lejeune, a military base in North Carolina. The plaintiffs brought this action against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2671-2680. The United States moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the North Carolina statute of repose, which provided that "no cause of action shall accrue more than 10 years from the last act or omission of the defendant giving rise to the cause of action," N.C. Gen.Stat. § 1-52(16) (2010), precluded the plaintiffs from bringing this case.
The District Court disagreed, concluding that a provision of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
The District Court then certified two questions for interlocutory appeal,
After the parties briefed this case, but before oral argument, the Supreme Court granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in a separate case out of the Fourth Circuit, which presented the question of whether CERCLA preempts North Carolina's statute of repose.
We must, therefore, turn to the second question presented in this appeal, whether the North Carolina statute of repose includes an exception for latent diseases. At the time the plaintiffs brought this action, the statute of repose provided:
N.C. Gen.Stat. § 1-52(16) (2010). On its face, the text of the statute contains no exception for latent diseases, and no other North Carolina statute excepts latent diseases from the statute of repose. The plain text of the statute is unambiguous.
Shortly after the Supreme Court decided Waldburger, however, the Governor of North Carolina approved Session Law 2014-17, which amended the statute of repose. The General Assembly also passed, and the Governor signed, Session Law 2014-44, which made several technical amendments to Session Law 2014-17.
The statute of repose now reads:
N.C. Gen.Stat. Ann. § 1-52(16) (West 2014) (emphasis added). The session law added a new section to the North Carolina General Statutes, § 130A-26.3, which provides: "The 10-year period set forth in G.S. 1-52(16) shall not be construed to bar an action for personal injury, or property damages caused or contributed to by ... the consumption, exposure, or use of water supplied from groundwater contaminated by a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant." N.C. Gen.Stat. Ann. § 130A-26.3.
The General Assembly expressly made Session Law 2014-44 apply to actions "filed, arising, or pending" on or after June 20, 2014, the statute's effective date. N.C. Sess. L. 2014-44, § 1(c) (amending N.C. Sess. L. 2014-17, § 4). Under the law, an action is pending "if there has been no final disposition with prejudice and mandate issued against that plaintiff issued by the highest court of competent jurisdiction where the claim was timely filed or appealed as to all the plaintiff's claims for relief to which this act otherwise applies." Id. In this case, the United States Supreme Court is the highest court of competent jurisdiction, and it has not issued a final disposition with prejudice, nor has a mandate issued from that Court. As such, the amended statute of repose would appear to apply to the instant appeal.
The Government disagrees. It contends that the North Carolina General Assembly is without authority to revive the plaintiffs' claims after the repose period has passed. Under North Carolina law, a statute may be applied retroactively "only insofar as it does not impinge upon a right which is otherwise secured, established, and immune from further legal metamorphosis." Gardner v. Gardner, 300 N.C. 715, 719, 268 S.E.2d 468, 471 (1980).
The Government directs us to McCrater v. Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., 248 N.C. 707, 104 S.E.2d 858 (1958), in which the North Carolina Supreme Court considered whether a statute extending the time limitation to file a workmen's compensation claim from one year to two years could be applied retroactively to claims filed more than one year but less than two years from the date of the accident. In other words, if the amendment applied retroactively, the claim would be timely; if not, the claim would be untimely. According to the North Carolina Supreme Court, the time limit to file a workmen's compensation claim was a condition precedent rather than a procedural statute of limitations. Id. at 708, 104 S.E.2d at 860. The court then held that the statute could not apply retroactively because the limitation period was "a part of the plaintiff's substantive right of recovery, [and] could not be enlarged by subsequent statute." Id. at 709-10, 104 S.E.2d at 860. The reason, the court explained, was that any attempt to revive an expired claim "would ... deprive the defendants of vested rights." Id. at 710, 104 S.E.2d at 860.
The plaintiffs argue that McCrater is inapposite because here it was unclear whether the original statute of repose's reference to "personal injury" encompassed claims for diseases. According to the plaintiffs, Session Law 2014-44 merely clarified the scope of the statute of repose. Whether the statute clarified or altered the statute of repose is relevant because under North Carolina law, clarifying amendments apply retroactively, whereas altering amendments do not. See Ray v. N.C. Dep't of Transp., 366 N.C. 1, 9, 727 S.E.2d 675, 681 (2012). The Government does not have a vested right in the interpretation of the statute of repose, the plaintiffs contend, because there is no final judgment. And to hold that the Government has a vested right would be inconsistent with the rule that a clarifying amendment "does not change the substance of the law but instead gives further insight into the way in which the legislature intended the law to apply from its original enactment." Id.
At the outset, we disagree that the original statute of repose was ambiguous with respect to a latent-disease exception. See supra at 1380. However, we hesitate to dismiss out of hand the plaintiffs' argument that Session Law 2014-44 clarifies, rather than substantively amends, the statute of repose. Session Law 2014-17 is
Moreover, in § 1 of the session law, the General Assembly found that prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Waldburger, "there was ambiguity and uncertainty regarding the effect of federal law on the North Carolina statute of repose in certain environmental cases." N.C. Sess. L. 2014-44, § 1.
Comparing the two statutes, it is clear that the amended statute of repose contains a brand new exception for groundwater claims. This is not a case where the General Assembly merely failed to address a particular point — whether groundwater contamination claims fall under the statute of repose — only to address it later. In Ferrell, the North Carolina Supreme Court held that a statute setting out the manner of determining the price at which the Department of Transportation would sell a parcel of property was clarifying because the original statute directing the Department to sell parcels provided no express guidance as to selling price. Ferrell, 334 N.C. at 659, 435 S.E.2d at 315. In other words, the clarifying statute filled a hole left by the original statute. Here, by contrast, the General Assembly created a substantively distinct exception from whole cloth. That the legislature saw itself as clarifying the scope of the statute of repose is not irrelevant. But just because the General Assembly said it was clarifying the scope of the statute of repose does not make it so. "It is this Court's job to determine whether an amendment is clarifying or altering." Ray, 366 N.C. at 9, 727 S.E.2d at 681. In this case, the original statute of repose was unambiguous, and it gave no indication that an exception existed for latent diseases. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude the subsequent amendment was substantive. See Childers, 274 N.C. at 260, 162 S.E.2d at 484. Session Law 2014-44 did not adopt the plaintiffs' proposed distinction between latent diseases and other types of claims; instead, it created one for groundwater contamination claims generally, and there is no question that this exception is new.
Session Laws 2014-17 and 2014-44 substantively amended the statute of repose to create an exception for groundwater contamination and, as a result, can only apply prospectively, lest they divest the Government of a vested right. See McCrater, 248 N.C. at 709-10, 104 S.E.2d at 860.
We therefore have the answer to both questions presented in this interlocutory appeal. First, CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. § 9658, does not preempt statutes of repose. See generally CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, ___ U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct. 2175, 189 L.Ed.2d 62 (2014). Second, North Carolina's statute of repose, N.C. Gen.Stat. § 1-52(16) (2010), applies to the plaintiffs' claims, and it does not contain an exception for latent diseases.
SO ORDERED.
"The term `applicable limitations period' means the period specified in a statute of limitations during which a civil action referred to in subsection (a)(1) of this section may be brought." Id. § 9658(b)(2). "The term `commencement date' means the date specified in a statute of limitations as the beginning of the applicable limitations period." Id. § 9658(b)(3). "[T]he term `federally required commencement date' means the date the plaintiff knew (or reasonably should have known) that the personal injury or property damages referred to in subsection (a)(1) of this section were caused or contributed to by the hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant concerned." Id. § 9658(b)(4)(A).
The absurd result, according to the court, was that potential claimants would be denied an opportunity to seek relief before they became aware that they were ill. But that is the point of a statute of repose; it "bar[s] any suit that is brought after a specified time since the defendant acted ..., even if the period ends before the plaintiff has suffered a resulting injury." Black's Law Dictionary 1546 (9th ed.2009). "Statutes of repose effect a legislative judgment that a defendant should be free from liability after the legislatively determined period of time." CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 134 S.Ct. 2175, 2183, 189 L.Ed.2d 62 (2014) (quotation marks omitted).
"When the words of a statute are unambiguous... judicial inquiry is complete." Merritt v. Dillard Paper Co., 120 F.3d 1181, 1186 (11th Cir. 1997) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Carolina Power & Light Co. v. City of Asheville, 358 N.C. 512, 518, 597 S.E.2d 717, 722 (2004) ("Where the statutory language is clear and unambiguous, the Court does not engage in judicial construction but must apply the statute to give effect to the plain and definite meaning of the language." (internal quotation marks omitted)). Here, the statutory language is plain. We therefore decline to follow Jones in conjuring an exception where the plain text of the statute of repose provides none.
The lack of an order dismissing the claim is not dispositive, for in McCrater there had been no dismissal prior to the statutory amendment. Similarly, in Waldrop and Wilkes County, the defendants' rights did not vest because of an order of dismissal; they vested when the limitations period expired. As in all three cases, the statute of repose at issue in this case creates a vested right ten years after the last act or omission giving rise to the cause of action. And while the abatement of an action may not be a right immune from legal metamorphosis, the right not to be sued after the relevant limitations period has passed certainly is, regardless of whether the time limitation is substantive or procedural. See McCrater, 248 N.C. at 709-10, 104 S.E.2d at 860; Waldrop, 230 N.C. at 373, 53 S.E.2d at 265.
N.C.S. Discussion of S.B. 574, at 3-4 (June 18, 2014) (statement of Sen. Goolsby) (emphasis added).