Beroth Oil Co. v. North Carolina Department of Transportation

JACKSON, Justice.

In this appeal we consider whether the Court of Appeals erred by affirming the trial court’s order denying plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. We hold that analyzing the substantive merits of plaintiffs’ inverse condemnation claim is improper at the class certification stage and therefore, the trial court and the Court of Appeals erred in doing so. We also conclude that because of the unique nature of property, coupled with the large number of diverse tracts involved in this litigation, individual issues would predominate over common *334issues of law and fact in a trial…