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Christensen v. Philip Morris USA Inc.6/8/2005
acto class action and the statute of limitations is tolled during the period in which the individuals are participants in the attorney general's suit"); Am. Tierra Corp. v. City of W. Jordan, 840 P.2d 757, 762 (Utah 1992) (adopting class action tolling "to avoid duplication of litigation, promote justice, do equity, and generally further the judicial efficiency and economy that class actions are designed to promote).
Many federal court decisions are also persuasive. See, e.g., Appleton Elec. Co. v. Graves Truck Line, Inc., 635 F.2d 603, 608 (7th Cir. 1980) (recognizing that achieving litigation efficiency, which FRCP 23 was designed to effectuate, "transcends the policies of repose and certainty behind statutes of limitations"), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 976 (1981); Rose v. Ark. Valley Environ. & Util. Auth., 562 F.Supp. 1180, 1192 (W.D. Mo. 1983) (recognizing that "the appropriate focus of inquiry ... should simply be upon the extent to which the claims asserted in the earlier class proceeding have in fact placed a defendant upon notice of the claims presently at issue"). But see Wade v. Danek Med., Inc., 182 F.3d 281 (4th Cir. 1999) (applying Virginia law in a products liability case, and concluding that Virginia would not adopt cross-jurisdictional equitable tolling so as to toll limitations during the pendency of a class action filed in the federal court of another jurisdiction); Jolly v. Eli Lilly & Co., 751 P.2d 923, 937 (Cal. 1988) (concluding that American Pipe was not applicable under the facts of that case, because the class action complaint "never put defendants on notice that personal injury damages were being sought on a class basis"; stating "it would be unfair to defendants to toll the statute of limitations on such personal injury actions"; and recognizing that the court's ruling would not result in "duplicative litigation," which American Pipe sought to avoid).
We acknowledge that the many federal and state cases recognizing class action equitable tolling are informative but not controlling. Moreover, despite the decades-old application of American Pipe to class action litigation, we acknowledge that there is no Maryland legislation or appellate court decision that authorizes equitable tolling in the context of a class action. And, we are mindful that the Legislature and the Court of Appeals have surely known of the Supreme Court's construction of the federal class action rule, yet neither has acted to adopt the concept of class action tolling.
We are equally aware that Maryland courts "have long maintained a rule of strict construction concerning the tolling of the statute of limitations." Hecht, 333 Md. at 333. To that end, the Court of Appeals has "long adhered to the principle that where the legislature has not expressly provided for an exception in a statute of limitations, the court will not allow any implied or equitable exception to be engrafted upon it." Booth Glass Co., Inc. v. Huntingfield Corp., 304 Md. 615, 623 (1985).
To illustrate, in Walko Corp., supra, 281 Md. 207, the Court considered a certified question from a federal appeals court, which asked: "Was the statute of limitations prescribed by [C.J.] ยง 5-101 suspended during the pendency of appellant's motion for leave to intervene, ultimately denied, in a civil action in [federal court]?" Id. at 208. Concluding that limitations was not tolled, the Court explained:
This policy of repose has fostered a traditional rule concerning the tolling of statutes of limitations that can be fairly termed one of strict construction. Early on we adopted this rigorous stance: "The principle of law is indisputable, that when the Statute of Limitations once begins to run, nothing will
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