Limitations, state law, and class actions

Ackerman v. Arkema involved the rule of orderliness and a question of Texas limitations law about the tolling effect of a class-action filing. Anchoring its analysis in prior Circuit precedent, the panel majority said that, absent intervening state authority, it must adhere to earlier panel decisions predicting Texas law, because “a prior panel’s interpretation of state law has binding precedential effect on other panels of this court absent a subsequent state court decision or amendment rendering our prior decision clearly wrong.”

That said, the panel divided over whether to certify the tolling question to the Texas Supreme Court. The majority declined to do so, emphasizing that neither party pressed for it, that one side opposed it at argument while the other was tepid, and that the issue did not present a “close[] question” in light of Circuit precedent. The dissent would have certified. No. 25-20006, Oct. 31, 2025.