Skidmore Law Group Represents NCDOT in Two Appellate Wins at North Carolina Supreme Court

Skidmore Law Group recently secured two victories for the North Carolina Department of Transportation at the North Carolina Supreme Court in the Map Act litigation. 

Sanders v. North Carolina Department of Transportation involved a claim for inverse condemnation under the Map Act years after the landowner had secured a direct condemnation settlement of nearly $16 million on the same property.  The Department moved to dismiss the case in its entirety pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6).  The trial court granted the dismissal in part, and denied it in part, finding that the landowner could continue to pursue its claim on the acreage that was not taken in fee simple by the Department in the original condemnation claim.  The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision.  However, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed and found in favor of the Department, dismissing the Map Act claim and holding that N.C.G.S. 136-111, North Carolina’s inverse condemnation statute, requires landowners to raise all inverse condemnation claims they knew about at the time a direct condemnation claim is filed. 

 In Mata v. North Carolina Department of Transportation, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed both the trial court and the Court of Appeals adopting the Department’s argument and holding that a Map Act taking is an indefinite negative easement, and that the subsequent rescission and repeal of the Map Act did not have any impact on the valuation of the Map Act claim.  Rather, the Court cited its previous decisions in Kirby v. North Carolina Department of Transportation and Chappell v. North Carolina Department of Transportation, and re-affirmed that a Map Act taking should be valued based on the difference in its value the moment immediately before the taking and the moment immediately after the taking. 

Skidmore Law Group’s team included partners Matt Skidmore and Jim Stanley, who were honored to work with attorneys from the condemnation section of the North Carolina Department of Justice and other outside counsel to achieve these favorable results for the Department.