Opinion ID: 2633444
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Tolling the statute of limitations.

Text: ¶ 25 Because we vacate that portion of the court of appeals' opinion requiring each member of the putative class to individually exhaust his or her administrative remedies, we must now determine whether the filing of a class administrative claim can toll the statute of limitations for other putative class members. The relevant section of the Arizona tax code is A.R.S. § 42-1106(C) (1999), which states that failure to begin an action for refund or credit within the time specified in this section is a bar against recovery of taxes.... However, the statute of limitations is tolled while the claimant exhausts his or her administrative remedies. See Third & Catalina Assocs. v. City of Phoenix, 182 Ariz. 203, 207, 895 P.2d 115, 119 (App.1994). Logic dictates that, if a claimant is allowed to exhaust administrative remedies on behalf of a class of those similarly situated, tolling of the statute of limitations should receive similar treatment. This conclusion, of course, does not apply to those claims already barred at the administrative level by the statute of limitations at the time Ladewig's representative claim was filed. See A.R.S. § 42-1106 (1999). [12] We hold that only those taxpayers whose claims were not barred by the statute of limitations, and who therefore could have filed separate, individual administrative refund claims at the time Ladewig filed her representative claim, and whose administrative remedies were therefore preserved by Ladewig's filing, are not barred by the statute of limitations and may join as members of the class in tax court.