CIVIL TRIALS
Amendment 7
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 re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Trial by Jury in Civil Cases
ORIGIN AND PURPOSE OF THE AMENDMENT
Late in the Federal Convention it was moved that a clause be inserted in article III, section 2 of the draft Constitution to read "* * * and a trial by jury shall be preserved as usual in civil cases." The proposal failed when it was pointed out that the make-up and powers of juries differed greatly in different States and that a uniform provision for all States was impossible.[1] The objection evidently anticipated that in cases falling to their jurisdiction on account of the diversity of citizenship of the parties, the federal courts would conform their procedure to the laws of the several States.[2] The omission, however, raised an objection to the Constitution which "was pressed with an urgency and zeal * * * well-nigh preventing its ratification."[3] Nor was the agitation assuaged by Hamilton's suggestion in The Federalist that Congress would have ample power, in establishing the lower federal courts and in making "exceptions" to the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction, to safeguard jury trial in civil cases according to the standards of the common law.[4] His argument bore fruit, nevertheless, in the Seventh Amendment, whereby, in the words of the Court, the right of trial by jury is preserved as it "existed under the English common law when the amendment was adopted."[5]
TRIAL BY JURY, ELEMENTS OF, PRESERVED
"Trial by jury," in the sense of Amendment VII, "is a trial by a jury of twelve men, in the presence and under the superintendence of a judge empowered to instruct them on the law and to advise them on the facts and (except in acquittal of a criminal charge) to set aside their verdict if in his opinion it is against the law or the evidence."[6] A further requisite is "that there shall be a unanimous verdict of the twelve jurors in all federal courts where a jury trial is held."[7] Assuming such a jury, the amendment has for its primary purpose the preservation of "* * * the common law distinction between the province of the court and that of the jury, whereby, in the absence of express or implied consent to the contrary, issues of law are resolved by the court and issues of fact are to be determined by the jury under appropriate instructions by the court."[8] But the amendment "does not exact the retention of old forms of procedure" nor does it "prohibit the introduction of new methods of ascertaining what facts are in issue * * *" or new rules of evidence.[9]
TO WHAT COURTS AND CASES APPLICABLE
Amendment VII governs only courts which sit under the authority of the United States,[10] including courts in the territories[11] and the District of Columbia.[12] It does not apply to a State court even when it is enforcing a right created by federal statute.[13] Its coverage is "* * * limited to rights and remedies peculiarly legal in their nature, and such as it was proper to assert in courts of law and by the appropriate modes and proceedings of courts of law."[14] The term "common law" is used in contradistinction to suits in which equitable rights alone were recognized at the time of the framing of the amendment and equitable remedies were administered.[15] Hence it does not apply to cases where recovery of money damages is incident to equitable relief even though damages might have been recovered in an action at law.[16] Nor does it apply to cases in admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, in which the trial is by a court without a jury.[17] Nor does it reach statutory proceedings unknown to the common law, such as an application to a court of equity to enforce an order of an administrative body.[18]
CASES NOT GOVERNED BY THE AMENDMENT
Omission of a jury has been upheld in the following instances on the ground that the suit in question was not a suit at common law within the meaning of the Seventh Amendment;
(1) Suits to enforce claims against the United States.[19]
(2) Suit authorized by Territorial law against a municipality, based upon a moral obligation only.[20]
(3) Suit to cancel a naturalization certificate for fraud.[21]
(4) Order of deportation of an alien.[22]
(5) Assessment of damages in patent infringement suit.[23]
(6) Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act.[24]
(7) Jurisdiction of bankruptcy court to examine into reasonableness of fees paid by person for legal services in contemplation of bankruptcy.[25]
(8) Final decision of customs appraisers in regard to value of imports.[26]
It has been further held that there was no infringement of the constitutional right to trial by jury in the following circumstances:
(1) A territorial statute requiring specific answers to special interrogations, in addition to a general verdict.[27]
(2) A rule of a District of Columbia court authorizing judgment by default in an action ex contractu, on failure to show by affidavit a good defense.[28]
(3) A federal court's observance of a State statute making a certified copy of a coroner's verdict prima facie evidence of the facts stated.[29]
(4) A federal statute (24 Stat. 379) giving prima facie effect to findings of the Interstate Commerce Commission.[30]
(5) An order of a District of Columbia court appointing an auditor in a law case to examine books and papers, make computations, hear testimony, and render a report which will serve as prima facie evidence of the facts found and conclusions reached, unless rejected by the court.[31]
(6) A decree of the Supreme Court enjoining, in the exercise of its original jurisdiction, the State of Louisiana from continuing to trespass upon lands under the ocean beyond its coasts and requiring the State to account for the money derived from that area.[32]
RESTRICTIVE FORCE OF THE AMENDMENT
But the absolute right to a trial of the facts by a jury may not be impaired by any blending with a claim, properly cognizable at law, of a demand for equitable relief in aid of the legal action or during its pendency. Such aid in the federal courts must be sought in separate proceedings.[33] Federal statutes from Revised Statutes (§ 723) through the Judicial Code (§ 267), prohibiting courts of the United States to sustain suits in equity where the remedy is complete at law, serve to guard the right of trial by jury, and should be liberally construed.[34] So also should Equity Rule 30, requiring the answer to a bill in equity to state any counterclaim arising out of the same transaction; such rule was not intended to change the line between law and equity, and must be construed as referring to equitable counterclaims only.[35] Nor may the distinction between law and equity, so far as federal courts are concerned, be obliterated by State legislation.[36] So, where State law, in advance of judgment, treated the whole proceeding upon a simple contract, including determination of validity and of amount due, as an equitable proceeding, it brought the case within the federal equity jurisdiction on removal. Ascertainment of plaintiff's demand being properly by action at law, however, the fact that the equity court had power to summon a jury on occasion did not afford an equivalent of the right of trial by jury secured by the Seventh Amendment.[37] But where State law gives an equitable remedy, such as to quiet title to land, the federal courts will enforce it if it does not obstruct the rights of the parties as to trial by jury.[38] An order of the Court of Claims attempting to reinstate a dismissed case in violation of plaintiff's right to dismiss violates the latter's right to trial by jury and may be corrected by mandamus.[39]
Judge and Jury
LINE DRAWN BY THE COMMON LAW
As was noted above, the primary purpose of the amendment was to preserve the historic line separating the province of the jury from that of the judge, without at the same time preventing procedural improvement which did not transgress this line. Elucidating this formula, the Court has achieved the following results: It is constitutional for a federal judge, in the course of trial, to express his opinion upon the facts, provided all questions of fact are ultimately submitted to the jury;[40] to call the jury's attention to parts of the evidence he deems of special importance,[41] being careful to distinguish between matters of law and matters of opinion in relation thereto;[42] to inform the jury when there is not sufficient evidence to justify a verdict, that such is the case;[43] to direct the jury, after plaintiff's case is all in, to return a verdict for the defendant on the ground of the insufficiency of the evidence;[44] to set aside a verdict which in his opinion is against the law or the evidence, and order a new trial;[45] to refuse defendant a new trial on the condition, accepted by plaintiff, that the latter remit a portion of the damages awarded him;[46] but not, on the other hand, to deny plaintiff a new trial on the converse condition, although defendant accepted it.[47]
In 1913 the Court held, in Slocum v. New York Life Insurance Company,[48] that where upon the evidence a federal trial court, sitting in New York, ought to have directed a verdict for one party but the jury found for the other contrary to the evidence, the amendment rendered it improper for a federal appeals court to order, in accordance with New York practice, the entry of a judgment contrary to the verdict; that the only course open to either court was to order a new trial. While plainly in accordance with the common law as it stood in 1791, the decision was five-to-four and was subjected to a heavy fire of professional criticism urging the convenience of the thing and the theory of the capacity of the common law for growth.[49] It has, moreover, been impaired, if not completely undermined by certain more recent holdings. In the first of these,[50] in which the same Justice spoke for the Court as in the Slocum Case, it was held that a trial court had the right to enter a judgment on the verdict of the jury for the plaintiff after overruling a motion by defendant for dismissal on the ground of insufficient evidence. The Court owned that its ruling was out of line with some of its expressions in the Slocum Case.[51] In the second case[52] the Court sustained a United States district court in Arkansas, in an action between parties of diverse citizenship, in rejecting a motion by defendant for dismissal and peremptorily directing a verdict for the plaintiff. The Supreme Court held that there was ample evidence to support the verdict and that the trial court, in following Arkansas procedure, had acted consistently with the Federal Conformity Act.[53] In the third case,[54] which involved an action against the Government for benefits under a war risk insurance policy which had been allowed to lapse, the trial court directed a verdict for the Government on the ground of the insufficiency of the evidence and was sustained in so doing by both the circuit court of appeals and the Supreme Court. Three Justices, speaking by Justice Black, dissented in an opinion in which it is asserted that "today's decision marks a continuation of the gradual process of judicial erosion which in one-hundred-fifty years has slowly worn away a major portion of the essential guarantee of the Seventh Amendment."[55] That the Court should experience occasional difficulty in harmonizing the idea of preserving the historic common law covering the relations of judge and jury with the notion of a developing common law is not surprising.
WAIVER OF RIGHT OF TRIAL BY JURY
Parties have a right to enter into a stipulation waiving a jury and submitting the case to the court upon an agreed statement of facts, even without any legislative provision for waiver.[56] "* * * Congress has, by statute, provided for the trial of issues of fact in civil cases by the court without the intervention of a jury, only when the parties waive their right to a jury by a stipulation in writing. Revised Statutes sections 648, 649."[57] This statutory provision for a written stipulation, however, does not preclude other kinds of waivers.[58] But every reasonable presumption should be indulged against a waiver.[59] None is to be implied from a request for a directed verdict.[60]
APPEALS FROM STATE COURTS TO THE SUPREME COURT
The last clause of Amendment VII is not restricted in its application to suits at common law tried before juries in United States courts. It applies equally to a case tried before a jury in a State court and brought to the United States Supreme Court on appeal.[61]
Notes
[1] 2 Farrand, Records, 628.
[2] See Federal Conformity Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 724.
[3] 2 Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, § 1763.
[4] Federalist, Nos. 81 and 83.
[5] Baltimore & C. Line v. Redman, 295 U.S. 654, 657 (1935); Parsons v. Bedford, 3 Pet. 433, 446-448 (1830).
[6] Capital Traction Co. v. Hof, 174 U.S. 1, 13, 14 (1899). Here it was held that a civil trial before a justice of the peace in the District of Columbia, although by a jury of twelve men, was not a jury trial in the sense of Amendment VII.
[7] Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U.S. 581, 586 (1900). See also American Publishing Co. v. Fisher, 166 U.S. 464 (1897); Springville v. Thomas, 166 U.S. 707 (1897); Andres v. United States, 333 U.S. 740, 748 (1948).
[8] Baltimore & C. Line v. Redman, 295 U.S. 654, 657 (1935); Walker v. New Mexico, & S.P.R. Co., 165 U.S. 593, 596 (1897); Gasoline Products Co. v. Champlin Ref. Co., 283 U.S. 494, 497-499 (1931); Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474, 476, 485-486 (1935).
[9] Gasoline Products Co. v. Champlin Ref. Co., 283 U.S. 494, 498 (1931); Ex parte Peterson, 253 U.S. 300, 309 (1920).
[10] Pearson v. Yewdall, 95 U.S. 294, 296 (1877). See also Edwards v. Elliott, 21 Wall. 532, 557 (1874); Justices of the Sup. Ct. v. United States ex rel. Murray, 9 Wall. 274, 277 (1870); Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U.S. 90 (1876); St. Louis & K.C. Land Co. v. Kansas City, 241 U.S. 419 (1916).
[11] Webster v. Reid, 11 How. 437, 460 (1851); Kennon v. Gilmer, 131 U.S. 22, 28 (1889).
[12] Capital Traction Co. v. Hof, 174 U.S. 1, 5 (1899).
[13] Minneapolis & St. L.R. Co. v. Bombolis, 241 U.S. 211 (1916), which involved The Federal Employers Liability Act of 1908. The ruling is followed in four other cases in the same volume. See ibid. 241, 261, 485 and 494.
[14] Shields v. Thomas, 18 How. 253, 262 (1856).
[15] Parsons v. Bedford, 3 Pet. 433, 447 (1830); Barton v. Barbour, 104 U.S. 126, 133 (1881).
[16] Clark v. Wooster, 119 U.S. 322, 325 (1886); Pease v. Rathbun-Jones Eng. Co., 243 U.S. 273, 279 (1917).
[17] Parsons v. Bedford, above; Waring v. Clarke, 5 How. 441, 460 (1847). See also The "Sarah," 8 Wheat. 390, 391 (1823), and cases there cited.
[18] Labor Board v. Jones & Laughlin, 301 U.S. 1, 48 (1937). See also Interstate Commerce Commission v. Brimson, 154 U.S. 447, 488 (1894); Yakus v. United States, 321 U.S. 414, 447 (1944).
[19] McElrath v. United States, 102 U.S. 426, 440 (1880). See also Galloway v. United States, 319 U.S. 372, 388 (1943).
[20] Guthrie Nat. Bank v. Guthrie, 173 U.S. 528, 534 (1899). See also United States v. Realty Co., 163 U.S. 427, 439 (1896); Jefferson City Gaslight Co. v. Clark, 95 U.S. 644, 653 (1877).
[21] Luria v. United States, 231 U.S. 9, 27 (1913).
[22] Gee Wah Lee v. United States, 25 F. (2d) 107 (1928); certiorari denied, 277 U.S. 608 (1928).
[23] Filer & S. Co. v. Diamond Iron Works, 270 F. 489 (1921); certiorari denied, 256 U.S. 691 (1921).
[24] Crowell v. Benson, 285 U.S. 22, 45 (1932).
[25] In re Wood and Henderson, 210 U.S. 246 (1908).
[26] Auffmordt v. Hedden, 137 U.S. 310, 329 (1890).
[27] Walker v. New Mexico & S.P.R. Co., 165 U.S. 593, 598 (1897).
[28] Fidelity & D. Co. v. United States, 187 U.S. 315, 320 (1902).
[29] Jensen v. Continental Life Ins. Co., 28 F. (2d) 545 (1928), certiorari denied, 279 U.S. 842 (1929).
[30] Meeker v. Lehigh Valley R. Co., 236 U.S. 434, 439 (1915).
[31] Ex parte Peterson, 253 U.S. 300 (1920).
[32] United States v. Louisiana, 339 U.S. 699 (1950).
[33] Scott v. Neely, 140 U.S. 106, 109 (1891). See also Bennett v. Butterworth, 11 How. 669 (1850); Hipp v. Babin, 19 How. 271, 278 (1857); Lewis v. Cocks, 23 Wall. 466, 470 (1874); Killian v. Ebbinghaus, 110 U.S. 568, 573 (1884); Buzard v. Houston, 119 U.S. 347, 351 (1886).
[34] Schoenthal v. Irving Trust Co., 287 U.S. 92, 94 (1932).
[35] American Mills Co. v. American Surety Co., 260 U.S. 360, 364 (1922). See also Stamey v. United States, 37 F. (2d) 188 (1929).
[36] Thompson v. Central Ohio R. Co., 6 Wall. 134 (1868).
[37] Whitehead v. Shattuck, 138 U.S. 146 (1891); Buzard v. Houston, 119 U.S. 347 (1886); Greeley v. Lowe, 155 U.S. 58, 75 (1894).
[38] Clark v. Smith, 13 Pet. 195 (1839); Holland v. Challen, 110 U.S. 15 (1884); Reynolds v. Crawfordsville First Nat. Bank, 112 U.S. 405 (1884); Chapman v. Brewer, 114 U.S. 158 (1885); Cummings v. Merchants Nat. Bank, 101 U.S. 153, 157 (1880); United States v. Landram, 118 U.S. 81 (1886); More v. Steinbach, 127 U.S. 70 (1888). Cf. Re Simons, 247 U.S. 231 (1918).
[39] Ex parte Skinner & Eddy Corp., 265 U.S. 86, 96 (1924).
[40] Vicksburg & M.R. Co. v. Putnam, 118 U.S. 545, 553 (1886); United States v. Reading Railroad, 123 U.S. 113, 114 (1887).
[41] 118 U.S. 545; where are cited Carver v. Jackson ex dem. Astor et al., 4 Pet. 1, 80 (1830); Magniac v. Thompson, 7 Pet. 348, 390 (1833); Mitchell v. Harmony, 13 How. 115, 131 (1852); Transportation Line v. Hope, 95 U.S. 297, 302 (1877).
[42] Games v. Dunn, 14 Pet. 322, 327 (1840).
[43] Sparf v. United States, 156 U.S. 51, 99-100 (1895); Pleasants v. Fant, 22 Wall. 116, 121 (1875); Randall v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co., 109 U.S. 478, 482 (1883); Meehan v. Valentine, 145 U.S. 611, 625 (1892); Coughran v. Bigelow, 164 U.S. 301 (1896).
[44] Treat Mfg. Co. v. Standard Steel & Iron Co., 157 U.S. 674 (1895); Randall v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co., 109 U.S. 478, 482 (1883) and cases there cited.
[45] Capital Traction Co. v. Hof, 174 U.S. 1, 13 (1899).
[46] Arkansas Land & Cattle Co. v. Mann, 130 U.S. 69, 74 (1889).
[47] Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474, 476-478 (1935).
[48] 228 U.S. 364 (1913).
[49] See Austin Wakeman Scott, Fundamentals of Procedure in Actions at Law (1922), 103 and articles there cited.
[50] Baltimore & C. Line v. Redman, 295 U.S. 654 (1935).
[51] Ibid. 661.
[52] Lyon v. Mutual Benefit Assn., 305 U.S. 484 (1939).
[53] 28 U.S.C.A. § 724.
[54] Galloway v. United States, 319 U.S. 372 (1943).
[55] Ibid. 397. As a matter of fact, the case being a claim against the United States need not have been tried by a jury except for the allowance of Congress.
[56] Henderson's Distilled Spirits, 14 Wall. 44, 53 (1872). See also Rogers v. United States, 141 U.S. 548, 554 (1891); Parsons v. Armor, 3 Pet. 413 (1830); Campbell v. Boyreau, 21 How. 223 (1859).
[57] Baylis v. Travelers' Ins. Co., 113 U.S. 316, 321 (1885), holding it error for a judge, in absence of any waiver, to find the facts and render judgment thereon.
[58] Duignan v. United States, 274 U.S. 195, 198 (1927), holding jury trial waived by an appearance and participation in the trial without demanding a jury.
[59] Hodges v. Easton, 106 U.S. 408, 412 (1883).
[60] Aetna Insurance Co. v. Kennedy, 301 U.S. 389 (1937).
[61] See Justices of the Sup. Ct. v. United States ex rel. Murray, 9 Wall. 274 (1870); Chicago, B. & Q.R. Co. v. Chicago, 166 U.S. 226, 242 (1897).