Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Class Action

A lawsuit that allows a large number of people with a common interest in a matter to sue or be sued as a group.

The class action suit began in the EQUITY courts of seventeenth-century England as a bill of peace. English courts would allow a bill of peace to be heard if the number of litigants was so large that joining their claims in a lawsuit was not possible or practical; the members of the group possessed a joint interest in the question to be adjudicated; and the parties named in the suit could adequately represent the interests of persons who were absent from the action but whose rights would be affected by the outcome. If a court allowed a bill of peace to proceed, the judgment that resulted would bind all members of the group.

Justice JOSEPH STORY, who served on the U.S. Supreme...