Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders — 564 U.S. 135 (2011) · Supreme Court of the United States · 2011

Supreme Court of the United States · 2011-06-13

15usc78j: author: Astra2 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md)

Original case on neochart.com

Case and law context

15 U.S.C. § 78j

Role: applied; posture: private Rule 10b-5(b) damages; dismissal reviewed on allegations; majority only; result: claimant-lost; claim:

Uncertainty

None recorded

Misfit

Only majority maker attribution is encoded. The later Lorenzo distinction between Rule 10b-5(b) and (a)/(c), already noted in the law catalogue, prevents treating this holding as blanket immunity from scheme liability.

B · Case × element grid

Top-level elements follow claim order in panels of up to six elements. Case rows repeat across panels. Every recorded block retains its holding and basis; multiple blocks are not merged into a case-level verdict. ✓ satisfied · ✗ not satisfied · ○ not reached · · not addressed. Muted blocks are not counted. Sub-element evidence remains on case and element pages.

Elements 1–6 of 12

15 U.S.C. § 78j
CaseStatutory commerce, mails, or exchange facilitySection 78j(b) rulemaking hookMaterially false statement or misleading half-truthImportance to a reasonable investorIntent to deceive, manipulate, or defraudConnection with a covered securities or swap transaction
Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders — 564 U.S. 135 (2011) · Supreme Court of the United States · 2011 (15usc78j: author: Astra2 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md))· not addressed· not addressed· not addressed· not addressed· not addressed

Elements 7–12 of 12

15 U.S.C. § 78j
CasePrivate plaintiff's purchaser or seller statusPrivate investor transaction causationActual economic loss in private damages actionCausal connection between fraud and economic lossFraudulent scheme or deceptive course of businessAdditional criminal mental-state requirement
Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders — 564 U.S. 135 (2011) · Supreme Court of the United States · 2011 (15usc78j: author: Astra2 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md))· not addressed· not addressed· not addressed· not addressed· not addressed· not addressed

Instances and excluded annotation blocks

Annotation blocks, including explicitly excluded context
CaseElementHolding and scopePatternExact source quotations
Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders — 564 U.S. 135 (2011) · Supreme Court of the United States · 2011 — not · pleaded (15usc78j: author: Astra2 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md))Materially false statement or misleading half-truthnot
Counted merits instance
applied / merits

basis: pleaded; party: Janus Capital Management LLC; theory: Rule 10b-5(b) ultimate authority; subject: party=Janus Capital Management LLC; theory=Rule 10b-5(b) ultimate authority

Preparation and affiliated management supplied influence, but the legally separate fund retained ultimate control. No conclusion on every other fraud element follows from dismissal on maker status.
statement-maker/independent-fund-adviser
Janus Capital Group, Inc. (JCG), is a publicly traded company that created the Janus family of mutual funds. These mutual funds are organized in a Massachusetts business trust, the Janus Investment Fund. Janus Investment Fund retained JCG’s wholly owned subsidiary, JCM, to be its investment adviser and administrator. JCG and JCM are the petitioners here.
Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/us_564.jsonl#/us/564/0135-01; Unicode character offsets [590:946] (end exclusive); SHA-256 73a3ba3854ec054a40c5b6756058bf95612e9c24c9016613a6ce2738c696ecd9.

Evidence kind: fact; polarity: supports; absent flag: 0; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged)

Although JCG created Janus Investment Fund, Janus Investment Fund is a separate legal entity owned entirely by mutual fund investors.
Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/us_564.jsonl#/us/564/0135-01; Unicode character offsets [947:1080] (end exclusive); SHA-256 73a3ba3854ec054a40c5b6756058bf95612e9c24c9016613a6ce2738c696ecd9.

Evidence kind: fact; polarity: cuts-against; absent flag: 0; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged)

At all times relevant to this case, all of the officers of Janus Investment Fund were also officers of JCM, but only one member of Janus Investment Fund’s board of trustees was associated with JCM.
Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/us_564.jsonl#/us/564/0135-01; Unicode character offsets [1395:1592] (end exclusive); SHA-256 73a3ba3854ec054a40c5b6756058bf95612e9c24c9016613a6ce2738c696ecd9.

Evidence kind: fact; polarity: cuts-against; absent flag: 0; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged)

There is no allegation that JCM in fact filed the prospectuses and falsely attributed them to Janus Investment Fund.
Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/us_564.jsonl#/us/564/0135-01; Unicode character offsets [14412:14528] (end exclusive); SHA-256 73a3ba3854ec054a40c5b6756058bf95612e9c24c9016613a6ce2738c696ecd9.

Evidence kind: fact; polarity: cuts-against; absent flag: 1; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged)

For purposes of Rule 10b-5, the maker of a statement is the person or entity with ultimate authority over the statement, including its content and whether and how to communicate it.
Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/us_564.jsonl#/us/564/0135-01; Unicode character offsets [7684:7865] (end exclusive); SHA-256 73a3ba3854ec054a40c5b6756058bf95612e9c24c9016613a6ce2738c696ecd9.

Evidence kind: rule; polarity: not recorded; absent flag: 0; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged)

But this assistance, subject to the ultimate control of Janus Investment Fund, does not mean that JCM “made” any statements in the prospectuses.
Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/us_564.jsonl#/us/564/0135-01; Unicode character offsets [14939:15083] (end exclusive); SHA-256 73a3ba3854ec054a40c5b6756058bf95612e9c24c9016613a6ce2738c696ecd9.

Evidence kind: held; polarity: not recorded; absent flag: 0; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged)

Court interpretations recorded from this case

interpretation

For purposes of Rule 10b-5, the maker of a statement is the person or entity with ultimate authority over the statement, including its content and whether and how to communicate it.

Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders — 564 U.S. 135 (2011) · Supreme Court of the United States · 2011 (15usc78j: author: Astra2 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md))

For purposes of Rule 10b-5, the maker of a statement is the person or entity with ultimate authority over the statement, including its content and whether and how to communicate it.
Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/us_564.jsonl#/us/564/0135-01; Unicode character offsets [7684:7865] (end exclusive); SHA-256 73a3ba3854ec054a40c5b6756058bf95612e9c24c9016613a6ce2738c696ecd9.

Under Janus, the Rule 10b-5(b) maker must have ultimate authority over content and whether/how to communicate the statement; drafting assistance alone is insufficient. Rule 10b-5(b) requires a false statement or omission that makes statements actually made misleading. Macquarie (2024) excludes pure omissions even when Item 303 requires disclosure. Do not turn every duty to disclose into a 10b-5(b) private claim; older broad omission phrasing in the cited 2019 opinions is bounded by that holding.