⚡ 10-Second Rule
Ask for money and a jury can decide, ask for an order to act and the judge decides — but you must request the jury on time.
🧒 ELI-10 Scene
In the Patel house, complaints come in two flavors. "Rohan owes me five dollars" goes to a family vote at dinner — everyone weighs in. "Make Rohan stop hogging the TV" goes straight to Dad, the referee. Money questions get the group. Stop-doing-that questions get the referee alone. And there's a house rule: if Priya wants the family vote, she must ask for it right away. Wait too long, and Dad decides everything himself.
⚖️ Actual Rule
The Seventh Amendment provides: "In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved." The right attaches to legal claims — chiefly claims for money damages — but not to equitable claims such as injunctions, specific performance, or rescission. When legal and equitable claims are joined, Beacon Theatres, Inc. v. Westover, 359 U.S. 500 (1959), requires the jury to try the legal claims, including fact issues common to both, before the judge decides the equitable claims. Under FRCP 38(b), a party demands a jury by serving a written demand no later than 14 days after service of the last pleading directed to the issue; under FRCP 38(d), failure to do so waives the right. Under FRCP 48, a civil jury "must begin with at least 6 and no more than 12 members," and unless the parties stipulate otherwise, the verdict must be unanimous and returned by at least 6 jurors. FRCP 47 lets the court or the parties conduct voir dire; challenges for cause are unlimited, while 28 U.S.C. § 1870 gives each party three peremptory challenges in civil cases. Under Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., 500 U.S. 614 (1991), extending Batson, peremptory challenges in civil cases may not be exercised on the basis of race, and J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel. T.B., 511 U.S. 127 (1994), bars strikes based on sex.
ELI-10 translation: money claims get a jury if you ask within 14 days, and nobody can be struck from the jury for their race or sex.
[NJ-VARIANT: flagged for future Eli Explains NJ Law module]
🔍 Ask These Questions
- What relief is sought — damages or a court order? (Money means jury; "make them do something" means judge.)
- Are legal and equitable claims mixed? (The jury goes first on the money issues and any facts both claims share.)
- Was a written jury demand served within 14 days of the last pleading on that issue? (No timely ask, no jury — the right quietly disappears.)
- Is the jury properly sized — 6 to 12 members, unanimous unless the parties agree otherwise? (The panel needs at least six votes, all agreeing, unless everyone said okay to less.)
- Are strikes during jury selection clean? (Unlimited strikes for real bias; only three free passes each — and never because of race or sex.)
- If a strike looks discriminatory, run the Batson steps. (One side points at a pattern, the striker must give a real reason, the judge decides if it's an excuse.)
⚠️ Bar Trap
Exam language: Examiners join a damages claim with an injunction claim and suggest the judge may try the "predominant" equitable claim first, sweeping the common fact issues away from the jury — but Beacon Theatres forbids that sequencing. The companion trap: a party who never served a timely Rule 38(b) demand insists the Seventh Amendment preserves the jury automatically, when the right is waived without a demand.
ELI-10: The jury gets the money questions first, even when an injunction is also on the table. And the jury right is like a raised hand — if nobody raises it in time, it's gone.
🧪 Question
A landscaper sued a rival nursery in federal court, asserting one claim for an injunction barring the nursery's continued use of a confusingly similar trade name and one claim for damages caused by the nursery's past use of the name. The nursery served a timely written jury demand on all issues so triable. The landscaper moved for a bench trial on the injunction claim first, arguing that the equitable claim predominates and that the court's findings would then streamline the damages trial. The nursery objected.
How should the court rule on the motion?
(A) Grant it, because the equitable claim predominates over the legal claim. (B) Grant it, because a judge may resolve all claims when legal and equitable claims are joined in one action. (C) Deny it, because the jury must first try the damages claim, including any fact issues common to both claims. (D) Deny it, because the Seventh Amendment guarantees a jury trial on equitable claims that are joined with legal claims.
Answer: (C). Under Beacon Theatres, when legal and equitable claims share common fact issues, the legal claim must be tried to the jury first so the judge's earlier findings cannot preclude the jury. No predominance test permits a bench trial to leapfrog the jury.
💡 Why the Wrong Answers Are Wrong
- (A) invokes a predominance test that does not exist in federal court; sequencing protects the jury right regardless of which claim seems bigger.
- (B) describes the abandoned "clean-up" approach; joining an equitable claim never erases the jury right on the legal claim.
- (D) reaches the right result with a false premise; the Seventh Amendment never attaches to the equitable claim itself, only to the legal one.
- ELI-10: The misconception is letting the referee answer the money questions first. The group votes on money — and on every fact the two fights share — before the referee rules.
