A shareholder of the Eaton Vance Municipals Trust initiated a lawsuit on behalf of the Trust against the trustees of these mutual funds and the distributor of the Trust (Eaton Vance Distributors). The lawsuit alleged that the defendants approved “asset-based compensation” to broker-dealers holding mutual fund shares in a brokerage account, contrary to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and a recent D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals case, Financial Planning Association v. SEC.
This case was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. On March 30, 2011, the Court granted the defendants’ Motion to Dismiss the case. In April 2011, the plaintiff appealed this dismissal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. In June 2011, the plaintiff moved to voluntarily dismiss the appeal before the First Circuit Court of Appeals.