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CIVIL PROCEDURE CLASS 29. Professor Fischer Columbus School of Law The Catholic University of America October 28, 2005. WRAP UP: JUDICIAL CONTROL OVER JURIES. RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY IN CIVIL ACTIONS. U.S. CONSTITUTION SEVENTH AMENDMENT .
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CIVIL PROCEDURE CLASS 29 Professor Fischer Columbus School of Law The Catholic University of America October 28, 2005
U.S. CONSTITUTIONSEVENTH AMENDMENT • In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law
HISTORICAL TEST • Real world: most cases are not difficult
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEGAL AND EQUITABLE REMEDIES • Legal – usual remedy damages • Equitable remedies include injunctions, accounting, rescission, reformation of contracts
CONUNDRUM • “What is the scope of jury trial right when the right is ‘preserved’ in terms of a distinction (between law and equity) that has been abolished (by merger)? - Fleming James et al., Civil Procedure (5th ed. 2001)
Problems with a historical test • Division between law and equity vague in 1791 • Law and equity is merged in the US federal system
SO WHEN IS THERE A RIGHT TO A JURY IN A CIVIL ACTIONS: Terry
ORDER WHERE JURY AND NON-JURY ISSUES • Which should the court hear first?
Right to a Jury in State Courts • Seventh Amendment does not apply to the states so states are free to grant or withhold the right to a jury in civil actions • State practice on this varies widely