Seventh Circuit Enforces Important Limit On Class Action Tolling

As we have noted before, the tolling rule created by the Supreme Court in the American Pipe case–which tolls the statute of limitations for absent class members when a class action is filed–generates vigorous disputes over when stale or successive claims will be allowed. The Seventh Circuit recently considered one such dispute in Collins v. Village of Palatine, holding that the statute of limitations is not tolled during the pendency of an ultimately successful appeal from the dismissal of a putative class action that had not been certified.

In Collins, the plaintiff sought to bring a class action alleging that a municipality's practice of putting certain personal information on traffic tickets left under windshield wipers violated the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act. Because his claim would otherwise have been untimely, the plaintiff invoked the American Pipe tolling rule based on two prior class actions filed by his lawyer. In the first of those suits,