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Nixon v. State9/30/2005
place where the act or omission occurred. However, "claim" includes only such claims accruing on or after January 1, 1963 . . . .
1965 Iowa Acts ch. 79, § 2(5), repealed by 1969 Iowa Acts ch. 81, § 2 (emphasis added). Clearly, the legislature's use of the verb "occurred" in the sentence immediately before the last sentence, above, shows the legislature must have meant something other than "to occur" when it used the verb "accruing." Otherwise, it simply would have used the word "occurring."
In the coming decades, we would incorporate the discovery rule into the Act because it was the correct interpretation of the statute. Moreover, there was nothing revolutionary about the cases in which we did so, Vachon and Callahan; neither expressly overruled any prior cases. The Iowa Tort Claims Act was a relatively new statute--a blank slate. Simply because we were not presented with the opportunity to construe the use of the verb "to accrue" in the Act between 1965 and 1969 does not mean it did not include a discovery rule.
Had we been given the chance, it is likely we would have--or at the very least should have--given the statutory phrase the meaning the plaintiffs suggest. It is the proper interpretation of the statute, according to this court in Vachon in 1994. It is also the proper interpretation according to the United States Supreme Court in 1979. United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 123-24, 100 S.Ct. 352, 360, 62 L.Ed. 2d 259, 270-71 (1979) (holding the discovery rule applies to the Federal Tort Claims Act and that the time limitation of U.S.C. § 2401(b) does not commence until discovery of the injury). As we recognized in Callahan, the Federal Tort Claims Act is "very similar" to the Iowa Act, and for this reason, we give considerable weight to cases interpreting that Act. 464 N.W.2d at 271; see also Feltes v. State, 385 N.W.2d 544, 547 (Iowa 1986); Adam v. Mount Pleasant Bank & Trust Co., 340 N.W.2d 251, 252 (Iowa 1983). As we also pointed out in Chrischilles--decided around the same time as the legislature passed the Act--a trend in this direction had already developed. 260 Iowa at 463, 150 N.W.2d at 100 (citations omitted). Indeed, the United States Supreme Court had recognized the discovery rule as early as 1941. Urie, 337 U.S. at 169-70, 69 S.Ct. at 1024-25, 93 L.Ed. 2d at 1292 (holding the discovery rule applies to the time limitations of the Federal Employers Liability Act, which, like our tort claims act, begins to run on "accrual.").
In sum, there is no reason why we should judicially re-enact statutory language the legislature expressly repealed and then engraft upon that statute a construction of a word that we would not adopt today had we been presented with the opportunity back in 1965. It is not our role to narrow the waiver of immunity granted by our legislature through our power to interpret statutes. See Doe, 251 N.W.2d at 501 (recognizing that in interpreting a statute "we must avoid legislating in our own right"). We must simply permit these plaintiffs access to the same remedy the Act will surely afford to those who are injured today but who will not discover the cause of their injuries for years to come.
IV. Disposition
The district court is affirmed. This matter is remanded to the district court for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
AFFIRMED.
All justices concur except Ternus and Cady, JJ., who dissent separately, and Carter, JJ., who joins both dissents.
TERNUS, Justice (dissenting).
I dissent. The majority believes the only consequential issue in this case is whether the statute of limitations for claims against the State, Iowa Code
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