231 Pa. Code app A R. 1701 Definitions. Conformity

• Library: Pennsylvania Code (Pa. Code)
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through Register Vol. 53, No. 52, December 30, 2023
• Citation: 231 Pa. Code app A R. 1701
• Year: 2023

Subdivision (a) defines "Class Action" to include any action brought by or against parties as representatives of a class until the court refuses to certify it as such or revokes a prior certification.

This definition follows language in Bell v. Beneficial Consumer Discount Company, 465 Pa. 225, 348 A.2d 734 (1975), that "when an action is instituted by a named individual on behalf of himself and a class, the members of the class are more properly characterized as parties to the action. A subsequent order of a trial court allowing an action to proceed as a class action is not a joinder of the parties not yet in the action. The class is in the action until properly excluded."

This definition becomes important in determining the effect of the commencement of a class action as tolling the statute of limitations as to the members of the class other than the named representatives. It carries into effect the decision of the United States Supreme Court in American Pipe and Construction Company v. State of Utah, 414 U. S. 538, 38 L. Ed.2d 713, 94 S. Ct. 756 (1974), in which the Court held that the commencement of an action as a...