Court Opinion

ID: 8884399
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 21:28:30.162714+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:06:50.301021
License: Public Domain

HOLLOWAY, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially):
I agree with the majority opinion in its treatment of the issues before us, but on the central question of jury trial I add these brief comments to make clear my understanding as to why count one is triable to a jury.
The majority opinion appears to treat as irrelevant the prayer in count one which seeks relief in the form of an accounting, reasoning that we must look beyond the relief sought and its label to the underlying tort alleged, which is triable to a jury. While the characterizations in the pleadings are not controlling, we are called on to look at the nature of the remedies requested, among other things. See Ross v. Bernhard, 396 U.S. 531, 538, 90 S.Ct. 733, 24 L.Ed.2d 729. In the light of Seventh. Amendment principles the accounting claim— which is not shown to be excessively complicated — is viewed in substance as a money claim triable to a jury. Dairy Queen, Inc. v. Wood, 369 U.S. 469, 477-478, 82 S.Ct. 894, 8 L.Ed.2d 44; AMF Tuboscope, Inc. v. Cunningham, 352 F.2d 150, 153 (10th Cir.). And since the issues on one of the remedies requested in the count are triable to a jury, the plaintiffs may not be denied a jury trial in the circumstances presented here. Beacon Theatres, Inc. v. Westover, 359 U.S. 500, 79 S.Ct. 948, 3 L.Ed.2d 988.