The Camp Lejeune Justice Act (“CLJA”) created a rare and unusual window for filing claims that would otherwise be long barred. For wrongful death claims, that window carries consequences that North Carolina lawyers need to think through carefully.

Under the CLJA, all claims for injury or death had to be filed by August 10, 2024. That deadline is not just another statute of limitation layered on top of existing law. It replaces North Carolina’s traditional two-year wrongful death statute of limitation for these claims. In other words, if the claim falls within the CLJA, the federal statute controls whether the claim is timely.

The result is something we do not normally see in wrongful death litigation. You can have viable wrongful death claims today for individuals who died decades ago, so long as the alleged injury is tied to Camp Lejeune water exposure and the claim was filed before August 10, 2024.

Although the CLJA governs when the claim can be brought, it does not rewrite how wrongful death proceeds are distributed. That issue is still governed by North Carolina’s wrongful death statute (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-18-2).

As every North Carolina practitioner knows, wrongful death proceeds are not assets of the estate (with limited exceptions for expenses) and are distributed according to the Intestate Succession Act (Chapter 29). So, even though the claim exists because of a federal statute, the money ultimately flows through a state-law distribution scheme.

And that is where the real issue emerges. North Carolina’s Intestate Succession Act has not been static. Since the early 1980s, the General Assembly has amended Chapter 29 multiple times, including changes to the surviving spouse’s share, the allocation between spouse and children, and the treatment of more remote heirs. Each amendment has altered who receives what.

So, when you are dealing with a CLJA wrongful death claim involving a death from, say, 1992, a natural question arises: Which version of the Intestate Succession Act applies? Is it the version in effect when the person died or the version in effect when the claim is filed or resolved decades later?

Fortunately, North Carolina courts have addressed this issue. In Johnson v. Blackwelder, 267 N.C. 209, 210 (1966), the court held that “an estate must be distributed among heirs and distributees according to the law as it exists at the time of the death of the ancestor.” Similarly, in First Union National Bank of N.C. v. Hackney, 266 N.C. 17, 20 (1965), the court explained that the heirs entitled to recover in a wrongful death action “are to be determined as of the time of the decedent’s death.” Both cases stand for the principle that the rights of beneficiaries in a wrongful death recovery are fixed at the time of death. Those rights do not change based on later statutory amendments. For lawyers handling these cases, that means pulling the correct historical version of Chapter 29 and applying it carefully. You may instinctively go to the current version of the Intestate Succession Act, but doing so could result in an incorrect distribution. The distribution must be made under the version of the Intestate Succession Act in effect on the date of death.