American Pipe Tolling Does Not Require Precognition

Hildebrandt v. Staples the Office Store LLC, No. B294642 (D2d3 Dec. 4, 2020)

The trial court granted summary judgment on the statute of limitations in this wage and hour case. Plaintiff argued that two prior class actions in which class cert was ultimately denied tolled the statute under the American Pipe doctrine. The trial court disagreed, finding that because class cert was denied on commonality grounds, Plaintiff had no reasonable basis to wait to file sue in reliance on the prior cases.

That’s not really the test, though. So long as Plaintiff can ascertain that she falls within the prior class definition, and so long as she’s bringing more or less the same claims, American Pipe applies. The Court of Appeal addresses Jolly v. Eli Lilly & Co., 44 Cal. 3d 1103 (1988), in which the California Supreme Court generally adopted the American Pipe analysis, while deciding that it didn’t apply to the facts of that case, which was a mass tort. In particular, Jolly held that tolling didn’t apply in because: (a) the class definition was somewhat fail-safe, such that a Plaintiff could not know she was a class member without first having key liability issues decided in her favor; and (b) the class plaintiff did not bring damages claims, which were the crux of Plaintiff’s case. In those circumstances, a plaintiff can’t reasonably rely on the prior class action in deferring her decision to sue. 

But those weren’t the case here. Plaintiff fell within the general class definition and had basically the same claims. Defendant says the exceptions in Jolly nonetheless apply because Plaintiff could not have predicted that her claims were sufficiently common with the named class plaintiffs to know she was in a certifiable class in the prior case. But requiring a predictive exercise like that is contrary to the whole point of American Pipe and Jolly, which is to preserve the utility of the class action device by not requiring any and all potential class members to rush to the courthouse to avoid the limitations period. 

In reaching its result, the court disagreed with Batze v. Safeway, Inc., 10 Cal. App. 5th 440 (2017), which suggested a presumption against tolling when class cert in the prior case is denied on lack commonality. 

Reversed.