Opinion ID: 2525038
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: class' action accrued three years before the filing date of its petition seeking declaratory relief

Text: ¶ 17 Since the parties agreed at trial that the case in controversy is governed by the three-year statute of limitations governing actions upon a liability created by statute, [28] the Court need not, and does not, revisit the issue whether or not this is the correct limitation period. Rather today's appeal draws the Court's attention to when the class' claim accrued. It is from this temporal marker that the limitations period is measured. This sets the period for which Board must recalculate eligible class members' enhanced retirement benefits  i.e., by giving credit for allowed military service. Class [using an incorporation theory] assert that its cause accrued (on the Board's ongoing monthly obligation to each eligible member) three years before Dewey filed his administrative claim with Board. Board contends the marker  antecedent to which it should recalculate enhanced benefits  is the expiration date of 11 O.S.Supp.1994 § 49-100.3G [H.B. 2228]. Neither position is sustainable. ¶ 18 Oklahoma's class action statute  12 O.S.1991 § 2023  bears great similarity to the provisions of Rule 23, Fed. R. Civ. P. Earlier case law recognizes the insight which can be garnered through consideration of federal court decisions addressing federally-evolved concepts reflected in Oklahoma's procedural regime. [29] The U.S. Supreme Court's seminal decision  addressing the relationship between filing a class-action suit and a statute of limitations  is American Pipe and Construction Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538, 94 S.Ct. 756, 38 L.Ed.2d 713 (1974). There the Court held that commencement of a class action suspends the applicable statute of limitations as to all asserted members of the class.... Id. at 414 U.S. at 554, 94 S.Ct. at 766. ¶ 19 Dewey's filing of his administrative claim alone does not afford Board notice of the class' identity or the extent of its members' claims, thereby depriving Board of the fundamental fairness which is its due. It is the filing of the class action which gives the defendant/Board notice not only of the class members' substantive claims but also of the number and generic identities of the potential plaintiffs. [30] Hence, it is Dewey's filing of the declaratory-relief suit on behalf of himself and like-situated firefighters which tolls the running of the applicable statute of limitations for the class' members. [31] ¶ 20 As to each class member, other than Dewey, the accrual date for his/her claim is three years antecedent to the filing date (July 6, 1995) of the class' petition in the district court. As to Dewey, [32] he is entitled to recalculation of those retirement benefits which accrued during the three-year period immediately preceding the filing date (February 4, 1994) of his administrative claim with the firefighters retirement system. [33] Claims for periods extending back more than three years from the respective temporal markers are time-barred as beyond the agreed limitations period.