1. These cases present an important and recurring question regarding how courts should resolve ambiguity as to the scope of a putative or certified class in determining whether a plaintiffs claims have been equitably tolled under American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538 (1974). Under American Pipe, the claims of individual parties included in the definition of a putative class are tolled during the pendency of the class action proceedings. After the class is denied certification or is decertified, individuals whose claims were tolled may bring their own claims during any time that remains within the previously tolled limitations period. The decision below broke from the Eleventh Circuit's rule that parties seeking to benefit from American Pipe tolling bear the burden of showing that they were unambiguously included within the scope of the definition of the putative class. The Ninth Circuit instead held that an individual plaintiff bringing a successive action benefits from American Pipe tolling unless the defendant can demonstrate that the putative class definition "unambiguously excludel[d]" the plaintiff. App., infra, at 12a.

Whether courts should resolve ambiguity in a class definition by presumptively applying American Pipe tolling unless a defendant can definitively prove the plaintiffs were unambiguously excluded from the putative class