Surgeon v. TKO Shelby, LLC

Summary

The Supreme Court of North Carolina vacated a trial court order certifying a class in a dispute involving a dealership promotional event. The Court held that the trial court’s class definitions and analysis were internally inconsistent and that the proposed class was not ascertainable because identifying members would require individualized fact determinations that would predominate over common issues. The case was remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The trial court's conflicting class definitions and analysis prevented meaningful appellate review, requiring vacatur of the class-certification order.
2. On the current record, the proposed class was not ascertainable because there was no feasible, objective way to identify the 927 dealership visitors from the available records.
3. The proposed class failed the predominance requirement because identifying class members would require individualized mini-trials that would overwhelm the common issues.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court's class-certification order was internally inconsistent because its class definition and analysis used different requirements concerning receipt of the flyer, calling the hotline, and visiting the dealership.
2. Whether the proposed class satisfied the ascertainability requirement when identifying class members would require individualized determinations of which hotline callers visited the dealership.
3. Whether the proposed class could satisfy the predominance requirement when class-member identification would devolve into individualized mini-trials.

Disposition

vacated