No Cross-Jurisdictional Tolling In Virginia Based On Class Actions

In a recently issued opinion, the Virginia Supreme Court held that Virginia law does not permit either equitable or statutory tolling of a state statute of limitations based on the pendency of a putative class action. This decision provides a strong basis for early dismissals of state-law-based individual and class actions where the named plaintiffs were putative class members in a previously filed class action.

This opinion arose out of two certified questions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the case Casey v. Merck, 2012 Va. LEXIS 48 (Va. Mar. 2, 2012). In Casey, the plaintiff, a Virginia resident, was a putative class member in a previously filed action in which the Southern District of New York denied class certification. Casey subsequently filed an individual state-law-based action in the Southern District of New York, which that court dismissed as barred by Virginia's statute of limitations. Casey appealed to the Second Circuit,