Opinion ID: $opinion_id
Heading Depth: 3.0
Heading Rank: 2

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Text: Plaintiffs take exception to the Special Master’s rejec­ tion of their alternative argument that North Carolina repudiated the Compact when it announced it would not take further steps toward obtaining a license. They argue that North Carolina’s announcement that it was shutting down the project constituted a refusal to tender any fur­ ther performance under the contract.

Plaintiffs’ repudiation theory fails for the same reasons their breach theory fails. A repudiation occurs when an obligor either informs an obligee “that the obligor will commit a breach that would of itself give the obligee a claim for damages for total breach,” Restatement §250(a), or performs “a voluntary affirmative act which renders the obligor unable or apparently unable to perform without such a breach,” id., §250(b). Neither event occurred here. North Carolina never informed the Commission (or any party State) that it would not fulfill its Article 5(C) obliga­ tion to take appropriate steps toward obtaining a license. Rather, it refused to take further steps that were not appropriate. Nor did North Carolina take an affirmative act that rendered it unable to perform. To the contrary, it continued to fund the Authority for almost two years; it maintained the records of the Authority; and it preserved the work completed to date while waiting for alternative funding sources that would enable resumption of the project. Plaintiffs further argue that a repudiation was effected by North Carolina’s refusal to take further steps toward licensing “except on conditions which go beyond” the terms of the Compact, Restatement §250, Comment b (internal quotation marks omitted)—i.e., the provision of external-financial assistance. But, as we have discussed, external-financial assistance was contemplated by the Compact.