As we previously reported, last year the Ninth Circuit in Resh v. China Agritech, Inc., No. 15-55432, 2017 WL 2261024 (9th Cir. May 24, 2017), joined a circuit split when it held that the statute of limitations did not bar a third successive putative class action alleging securities fraud claims against a fertilizer manufacturer. The Ninth Circuit’s decision would have expanded the American Pipe equitable tolling rule to allow absent members of an uncertified class to ... Keep Reading »
Search Results for: American Pipe
Sixth Circuit Litigants Beware: Exiting the American Pipe Highway Can Forfeit Your Toll
Classified contributors have blogged numerous times (including several times this year) on opinions that tested the boundaries of American Pipe tolling, including those that addressed whether the doctrine applies to claims barred by an applicable statute of repose, successive putative class actions, and cross-jurisdictional litigation. Sometimes, however, litigants forget the well-established rules of American Pipe tolling in their circuit. In a pair of related ... Keep Reading »
Supreme Court Asked to Resolve Circuit Split Over Applicability of American Pipe Tolling to Successive Class Actions
We previously blogged on whether the Supreme Court’s ruling in American Pipe applies to toll the statute of limitations for successive putative class actions. In Resh v. China Agritech, Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that American Pipe tolled the limitations period for putative class actions by absent class members — thus theoretically permitting endless relitigation of certification denials. As we predicted, a defendant in Resh has filed a petition for writ of certiorari ... Keep Reading »
SCOTUS Holds American Pipe Tolling Does Not Apply to Securities Class Action Opt-Out Claims Filed Outside Repose Period: CalPERS v. ANZ Securities, Inc.
We have blogged about the evolution and application of the American Pipe tolling rule, as further expanded by Crown Cork, many times (here, here, here, and here), most recently following the Ninth Circuit’s Resh decision last month (here and here). Under American Pipe, individual claims of unnamed class members in a previously dismissed action may proceed as a subsequently filed class action after the limitations period would otherwise have expired. Today, we switch ... Keep Reading »
Next Stop the Supreme Court?: Circuit Court Extends American Pipe Tolling to Preserve Class Claims
The Ninth Circuit recently held that plaintiffs whose claims were tolled during the pendency of two class actions were not time-barred from bringing a third related putative class action when the first two classes were not certified. Plaintiffs alleged that the defendant, a Chinese holding company, along with its directors and managers, violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by misstating revenue and income related to its subsidiaries’ purported fertilizer ... Keep Reading »
Ninth Circuit Expands American Pipe Tolling to Subsequent Securities Class Action by Unnamed Class Members, but Leaves Related Comity and Issue Preclusion Questions for Another Day
The Ninth Circuit in Resh v. China Agritech, Inc., No. 15-55432, 2017 WL 2261024 (9th Cir. May 24, 2017), revived the third successive putative shareholder class action against a fertilizer manufacturer after the district court dismissed this last case as untimely. By reversing the lower court’s holding that the case was time-barred, the Ninth Circuit expanded the American Pipe tolling rule (as further expanded by Crown Cork) to allow the individual claims of unnamed ... Keep Reading »
No Repose for Debate on Applicability of American Pipe Tolling
In its seminal 1974 American Pipe opinion, the Supreme Court held that the commencement of a class action tolls the applicable statutes of limitation as to all putative class members who would have been parties had the class been certified. Since then, courts have repeatedly applied American Pipe to toll statutes of limitation but disagreed as to whether the doctrine is based on legal principals under Rule 23 or the equitable power of the courts. The Eleventh Circuit ... Keep Reading »
Ohio District Court Limits American Pipe Tolling Doctrine
The District Court for the Southern District of Ohio recently limited the American Pipe tolling doctrine in a fraud suit arising out of the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”). Plaintiffs’ 2011 Ohio complaint alleged that defendants’ offering materials upon which they relied more than three years earlier violated the Federal Securities Act. Defendants moved to dismiss based on the three year statute of repose contained in 15 U.S.C. §77m. Plaintiffs ... Keep Reading »
American Pipe Tolling Inapplicable In Texas Negligent Misstatement Case
The Southern District of Texas found that negligent misstatement claims filed more than two years after the last alleged misstatement were time-barred and that the applicable statute of limitations was not tolled under American Pipe & Constr. Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538 (1974). The Plaintiffs, private investment funds, alleged that the Defendants, BP oil affiliates, directors and officers, made misrepresentations regarding: (i) the extent of BP’s commitment to a ... Keep Reading »
Amended Class Definition That Excludes Putative Class Member Does Not Preclude American Pipe Tolling
The Eastern District of Michigan recently held that certain claims of a putative class member were tolled under American Pipe & Constr. Co. v. Utah., 414 U.S. 538 (1974), even though the named plaintiff had unsuccessfully moved for certification of an amended class whose definition excluded the putative class member’s claims. In 2013, Plaintiff Machesney filed a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) class action against Ramsgate Insurance Company in the Eastern ... Keep Reading »