The U.S. Supreme Court reached a decision in China Agritech, Inc. v. Resh holding that the equitable tolling rule does not apply to subsequently filed class action claims.  In a 1974 decision, American Pipe & Construction Company v. Utah, the Supreme Court had held that the timely filing of a class action tolls the statute of limitations for putative class action members, meaning that even if the statute of limitations had already run, putative class members would still be able to join an existing class action, intervene in the resulting individual action if class certification were denied or bring an individual action if the class action were dismissed.  Courts had split on whether this principle of equitable tolling applied to subsequently filed class actions.  The Supreme Court held that American Pipe tolling does not apply to class actions.  The Supreme Court focused on the “’efficiency and economy’ of litigation that support tolling of individual claims…do not support maintenance of untimely successive class actions.”