China Agritech, Inc. v. Resh

U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 11, 2018 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Decided
June 11, 2018
Term
October Term 2017
Vote
9–0
Majority author
Justice Ginsburg
Issue area
Judicial Power
Disposition
Reversed and remanded
Outcome
Petitioning party won
Ideological direction
Conservative

Opinion excerpt

Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns the tolling rule first stated in American Pipe & Constr. Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538, 94 S.Ct. 756, 38 L.Ed.2d 713 (1974). The Court held in American Pipe that the timely filing of a class action tolls the applicable statute of limitations for all persons encompassed by the class complaint. Where class-action status has been denied, the Court further ruled, members of the failed class could timely intervene as individual plaintiffs in the still-pending action, shorn of its class character. See id., at 544, 552-553, 94 S.Ct. 756. Later, in Crown, Cork & Seal Co. v. Parker, 462 U.S. 345, 103 S.Ct. 2392, 76 L.Ed.2d 628 (1983), the Court clarified American Pipe 's tolling rule: The rule is not dependent on intervening in or joining an existing suit; it applies as well to putative class members who, after denial of class certification, "prefer to bring an individual suit rather than intervene ... once the economies of a class action [are] no longer available." 462 U.S., at 350, 353-354, 103 S.Ct. 2392 ; see California Public Employees' Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, Inc., 582 U.S. ----, ----, 137 S.Ct. 2042, 2053, 198 L.Ed.2d 584 (2017) (American Pipe "permitt[ed] a class action to splinter into individual suits"); Smith v. Bayer Corp., 564 U.S. 299, 313-314, n. 10, 131 S.Ct. 2368, 180 L.Ed.2d 341 (2011)…

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