Client Alert: Supreme Court Limits Class Action Tolling, Reducing the Ability of Plaintiffs to File Successive Class Actions for the Same Claims

On June 11, 2018, the United States Supreme Court held that the rule that tolls the statute of limitations for the claims of individual class members when a class action is filed applies only to class members’ individual claims, not to successive class actions. China Agritech, Inc. v. Resh, 584 U.S. --- (2018).

In American Pipe & Constr. Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538 (1974), the United States Supreme Court held that the filing of a class action tolls the running of the statute of unnamed class members who choose to intervene in the lawsuit after the court decides that class certification is inappropriate. In Crown, Cork & Seal Co. v. Parker, 462 U.S. 345 (1983), the Court clarified that this rule, commonly known as “class action tolling” or “American Pipe tolling”, also applies to class members who choose to file individual suits, rather than intervene, after the denial of class certification.

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