848
Opinion of the Court
310 (1945), and its progeny. 472 U. S., at 806-808. But we also saw that before an absent class member's right of action was extinguishable due process required that the member "receive notice plus an opportunity to be heard and participate in the litigation," and we said that "at a minimum . . . an absent plaintiff [must] be provided with an opportunity to remove himself from the class." Id., at 812.24
IV
The record on which the District Court rested its certification of the class for the purpose of the global settlement did not support the essential premises of mandatory limited fund actions. It failed to demonstrate that the fund was limited except by the agreement of the parties, and it showed exclusions from the class and allocations of assets at odds with the concept of limited fund treatment and the structural protections of Rule 23(a) explained in Amchem.
A
The defect of certification going to the most characteristic feature of a limited fund action was the uncritical adoption by both the District Court and the Court of Appeals of figures 25 agreed upon by the parties in defining the limits of the fund and demonstrating its inadequacy.26 When a dis-24 We also reiterated the constitutional requirement articulated in Hans-berry v. Lee, 311 U. S. 32 (1940), that "the named plaintiff at all times adequately represent the interests of the absent class members." Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts, 472 U. S., at 812 (citing Hansberry, supra, at 42-43, 45). In Shutts, as an important caveat to our holding, we made clear that we were only examining the procedural protections attendant on binding out-of-state class members whose claims were "wholly or predominately for money judgments," 472 U. S., at 811, n. 3.
25 The plural reflects the fact that the insurers agreed to provide $1.525 billion under the Global Settlement Agreement and $2 billion under the Trilateral Settlement Agreement.
26 The federal courts have differed somewhat in articulating the standard to evaluate whether, in fact, a fund is limited, in cases involving mass torts. Compare, e. g., In re Northern Dist. of California, Dalkon Shield
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