Court Opinion

ID: 9468546
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:17:23.070784+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:54.975311
License: Public Domain

*974SLOVITER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the majority’s disposition of this case and almost all of its comprehensive opinion. I write separately only because I believe that the discussion of the division between judge and jury at pp. 963-964 goes further than necessary under the facts of this case. The case before us is one in which the issues were clearly appropriate for disposition by the trial court, because Reader’s Digest did not request a jury trial. However one characterizes the issue of whether Reader’s Digest’s conduct was proscribed by the prior consent order, it is clear that in this case, it was the trial court which would have been required to make that decision. Therefore the only question before us on that issue is whether summary judgment was appropriate. Because the relevant facts were not in dispute, I agree with the majority that summary judgment was appropriate.
I would leave for another day the issue whether the dictum in the footnote in United States v. Vulcanized Rubber & Plastics Co., 288 F.2d 257, 258 n.2 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 821, 82 S.Ct. 38, 7 L.Ed.2d 26 (1961), precludes a jury trial in all instances on a respondent’s claim that its actions were not proscribed by a prior order.