The US Sixth Circuit last week narrowed its standard for adequately pleading scienter in PSLRA cases using a collective-knowledge theory to impute knowledge to a corporate defendant from among various employees. In Omnicare, the Court limited collective-knowledge scienter by imposing the helpful, but unremarkable, requirement that such a pleading demonstrate a reasonably close connection between the collectively-held-knowledge and the issuance of the misstatement (or decision not to correct a prior omission). In re Omnicare, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 13-5597 (6th
Ruling in a case of first impression, the Sixth Circuit rejected an implied cause of action under Section 36(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. § 80a-1 et seq. Although the Circuits remain split, recent decisions (after 2001) agree on the point. Two pension funds sued an exchange-traded fund (ETF), its investment advisor (IA) and its trust-company-affiliate (BTC), claiming BTC's Lending Agent fee "' 35% of all net revenue on the ETF's securities-lending activity - was excessive. The Court affirmed dismissal of the express Section 36(b) claim for breach of fiduciary ...