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A North Carolina company, Sunset Keys LLC, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the state of North Carolina and Duke Energy Carolinas LLC, seeking compensation after a state high court ruling stripped the company of its lake bed parcel. The legal dispute centers around property owned by the Kisers, a family who originally owned the lake bed of Lake Norman.

According to the complaint filed on Thursday, Duke Energy purchased most of the surrounding land from the Kiser family, with the family granting the energy company limited access to a portion of their lake bed parcel. The remainder of the property was later transferred to Sunset Keys, a company led by members of the Kiser family.

Sunset Keys claims Duke Energy granted permits to third parties who trespassed on the company’s parcel by constructing encroaching structures. This led the Kisers to sue both the energy company and the trespassers. In August 2018, a state trial court ruled against the Kisers, ordering them to remove a retaining wall from the lake bed parcel. The court ruled again in January 2020, evicting the family from their 280.4-acre property without compensation.

The Kisers appealed, and in 2020, the North Carolina Court of Appeals sided with the family. However, in April 2023, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the decision, ruling in favor of Duke Energy after it petitioned the court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the ruling in December 2023.

Sunset Keys' lawsuit contends that the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision went beyond Duke’s original petition for review and effectively upheld a trial court order transferring the property without just compensation. The company argues that the taking was done without proper compensation or a method to assess the compensation owed. Furthermore, Sunset Keys asserts that the state trial court’s decision failed to specify the boundaries of the lakebed parcel, making the ruling insufficient to transfer ownership.

The lawsuit also claims that Duke Energy, in collaboration with the state of North Carolina, should be responsible for compensating Sunset Keys, as the property rights could not have passed directly to third parties without being transferred to Duke first.

Sunset Keys additionally raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest, asserting that North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, who wrote the April 2023 decision, should have recused himself due to his ties to Duke Energy. The company alleges that Justice Newby and his wife own Duke Energy stock and that the company made significant political contributions to a super PAC that helped elect him.

Representatives for Sunset Keys, Duke Energy, and the North Carolina Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The case, Sunset Keys LLC v. State of North Carolina et al., is currently before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina under case number 3:25-cv-00015.