Thank you to the PSLRA Nugget, a new securities-related blog, for this post tracking down information on one of the mutual fund "failure to file" class actions--a case against Allianz.  According to the Nugget, Judge Selna (C.D. Cal.) held that the plaintiffs' claims (discussed here and in several other posts at SLW)

must be brought on a derivative basis because “[t]he fact that Defendants allegedly failed to ensure the participation [in the settlements] injured the funds,” not the shareholders directly. Since the funds “owned the securities,” plaintiffs would have to bring the claims in a derivative lawsuit, following the procedures of Massachusetts law, under which the fund was established. He also ruled that Plaintiffs’ 1940 Act claims under § 36(a) (alleging “personal misconduct”) could only be brought by the SEC, not private plaintiffs.

It is unclear how many of the 44 class actions filed in January 2005 against mutual fund managers are still active.  As noted in this update on the Dechert law firm's website (Dechert is representing several of the mutual funds named as defendants), as of March 2005 nearly half of the 44 mutual fund class action cases had been "dismissed by plaintiffs, without court intervention."  I believe that these dismissals followed showings by defendants that they had, in fact, filed the claims in question.