Opinion ID: 692072
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Heading: The Framework for Assessing Seventh Amendment Claims

Text: 17 The Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution declares that [i]n suits at common law ... the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.... The thrust of the Amendment was to preserve the right to jury trial as it existed in 1791; indeed, for a time the appropriate rules of the common law as they existed in 1791 were the sole measure of the scope and meaning of the Seventh Amendment. Dimick, 293 U.S. at 476, 55 S.Ct. at 297; cf. Thompson v. Utah, 170 U.S. 343, 350, 18 S.Ct. 620, 622-23, 42 L.Ed. 1061 (1898) (using same test for scope of Sixth Amendment jury rights). It is now well settled, however, that the constitutional right to a jury trial extends beyond the bounds set by the common law forms of action existing at the time of the Amendment's adoption. Curtis v. Loether, 415 U.S. 189, 193-94, 94 S.Ct. 1005, 1007-08, 39 L.Ed.2d 260 (1974). The Court, through Mr. Justice Story, established the basic principle in 1830: 18 The phrase common law, found in [the Seventh Amendment], is used in contradistinction to equity, and admiralty and maritime jurisprudence.... By common law, [the Seventh Amendment's framers] meant what the constitution denominated in the third article law; not merely suits, which the common law recognized among its old and settled proceedings, but suits in which legal rights were to be ascertained and determined, in contradistinction to those where equitable rights alone were recognized, and equitable remedies were administered; or where, as in admiralty, a mixture of public law, and of maritime law and equity, was often found in the same suit.... In a just sense, the amendment then may well be construed to embrace all suits, which are not of equity and admiralty jurisdiction, whatever may be the peculiar form which they may assume to settle legal rights. 19 Parsons, 28 U.S. (3 Pet.) at 445-46. Accord Chauffeurs Local No. 391 v. Terry, 494 U.S. 558, 564, 110 S.Ct. 1339, 1344, 108 L.Ed.2d 519 (1990) (quoting Parsons ). In short, any adjudication of a legal, as opposed to an equitable, right falls within the scope of the Amendment. Tull v. United States, 481 U.S. 412, 417, 107 S.Ct. 1831, 1835, 95 L.Ed.2d 365 (1987) (Seventh Amendment require[s] a jury trial on the merits in those actions that are analogous to 'Suits at common law.' ). For example, the Seventh Amendment embraces the adjudication of a legal right created by statute, even where that right has no precursor among the suits and actions known to the common law. Id. It is, of course, a simpler matter to state the Amendment's scope in the abstract than to mark out its boundaries with precision in a given case. 20 To determine whether a particular action resolves legal or equitable rights, we examine both the nature of the issues involved and the nature of the remedy sought. Specifically, the test for statutory actions involves two steps: 21 First, we compare the statutory action to 18th-century actions brought in the courts of England prior to the merger of the courts of law and equity. Second, we examine the remedy sought and determine whether it is legal or equitable in nature. 22 Chauffeurs, 494 U.S. at 565, 110 S.Ct. at 1345 (quoting Tull, 481 U.S. at 417-18, 107 S.Ct. at 1835-36); see Ross v. Bernhard, 396 U.S. 531, 538 n. 10, 90 S.Ct. 733, 738 n. 10, 24 L.Ed.2d 729 (1970). 5 Thus, if a particular action entails either the adjudication of legal rights, Tull, 481 U.S. at 425, 107 S.Ct. at 1839, or, alternatively, the implementation of legal remedies, Curtis, 415 U.S. at 195, 94 S.Ct. at 1008-09, the district court must honor a jury demand to the extent that disputed issues of fact concerning those rights and remedies require a trial. 6 23 We proceed to analyze Lockwood's Seventh Amendment claim within this framework, concluding that he is entitled to a jury trial as a matter of right in this case. Our decision preserves, as it must, the patentee's ability to compel a jury trial on the factual questions relating to patent validity. 24