Ohio, ex rel. Robert Merrill, Trustee, et al. v. Ohio Department of Natural Resources, et al.

Whether the failure of a state court to provide individual notice to readily identifiable class members in a class action settlement of a case asserting a taking by a State of property owned by Class Members by certifying the class under Ohio’s Civil Procedure Rule 23(B)(2), (identical to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2)) instead of certification under Rule 23(b)(3), when the Class Members are to be given settlement payments of monetary compensatory damages for the taking, thereby depriving those class members who never received notice of the settlement of Ohio’s taking of their realty interests of their right to Due Process under the Civil Rules. Whether the failure of a state court to provide individual notice to readily identifiable class members whose lands were taken in a class action settlement when they were entitled to claim payments of monetary compensatory damages, constitutes an improper deprivation of their properties without Due Process of law, as would be required under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and of the Ohio Constitution. Whether a state court judgment approving a settlement arising out of a state’s taking without providing notice to class members who are readily identifiable, which deprives the class members of their property without Due Process of law, would be binding and enforceable against those class members so deprived.