The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that New York recognizes cross-jurisdictional class action tolling.
Here is how the decision makes a difference. If a class action was brought in New York state court and, after four years of litigation, class certification was denied, an individual got an extra four years to bring an individual claim because of regular class action tolling (often called American Pipe tolling, after a US Supreme Court case). But, without cross-jurisdictional class action tolling, the same suit brought in Federal court (even in New York) would not toll that statute of limitations, meaning that if class certification was denied in the SDNY, it could then be too late for an individual investor to sue (putting aside some other rules that complicate things. Cross-jurisdictional class action tolling means that a class action in a court other than New York state court still tolls the time members of the proposed class have to bring individual actions.
This decision applies in many contexts, from consumer class actions to antitrust class actions. Most relevant to the subjects we litigate is that it means that investors still can sue trustees on some RMBS trusts that were created in 2005 – 2007 if those trusts were in RMBS trustee class actions (as many were). Our friends at the Oakleaf Group and we have created a database of all public crisis-era trusts (and some private deals, too) showing when the statute of limitations for trustee actions runs out after considering cross-jurisdictional class action tolling (and other kinds of tolling).