The Seventh amendment to the US Constitution prescribes that where the pecuniary limit of a suit is more than twenty dollars, the trial by jury can be exercised by a person desiring to proceed with jury trial. Any fact tried by jury shall not be called in question and reexamined otherwise in any court except according to the procedure and rules established by common law. The seventh amendment to the US constitution guarantees right to jury trial in civil cases, which are heard in federal court (Legal dictionary, 2020). The provision further mentions that before conducting a proceeding for a jury trial the lawsuit must satisfy the four requirements set up by the Constitution. Firstly, the claim must have been triggered only as per the English Common Law of 1971 and not as per the 21st Century Common law. In other words, it means that the claim must be recognized under the English Common Law of 1971, although if the claim arises as per the 21st Century English Common Law then also a trial by jury can be exercised. As held in Markman case a right to trial by jury can also be exercised even though the claim is recognized as per the new law (Legal dictionary, 2020). The Second requirement is that claim must first be brought tin a federal court only then a right to trial before the jury is established. This right is also mentioned as a liberty in the Bill of Rights though due to doctrine of selective incorporation most of the states do not exercise this right created by the federal law (Bray, 2018). The third requirement is that the claim must be above twenty dollars, which is usually met as the suit exceeds the said amount in almost all the cases. Lastly, the claim must be legal in nature. That is to say, no right to trial by jury can be exercised in cases, which involve civil claims like seeking injunctions or specific performance of a contract (Murray, 2017). The claims, which are equitable in nature, cannot be tried before a jury. An employee’s claim for back pay under Civil Rights Act 1964 is a legal claim even though the statute recognizes the remedy as equitable (Legal Information Institute, 2020). A right to jury trial can be refused where the relief sought is incidental to the equitable claim for injunction and likewise. Where the claim involves mixed questions i.e. of law and equity both, in such cases the legal questions should be presented before the jury as per the seventh amendment and the equitable questions be decided as per the judicial resolution (Murray, 2017).
Thus in the present scenario a right to jury trial can be duly exercised as the claim satisfies all the four requirements i.e. the claim is legal in nature and has been properly brought before the federal court, it exceeds the amount mentioned. Therefore, as per the seventh amendment to the Constitution of US the right to jury trial can be exercised in the given circumstances.
Bibliography
Bray, S. L. (2018). Equity and the Seventh Amendment. Notre Dame Legal Studies Paper.
Legal dictionary. (2020). Seventh Amendment. Retrieved July 2020, from https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Seventh+Amendment
Legal Information Institute. (2020). Seventh Amendement. Retrieved July 2020, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/seventh_amendment
Murray, H. (2017). The Right to a Jury Trial: The Seventh Amendment. . Enslow Publishing, LLC.
