Court Opinion

ID: 9737447
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:25:26.168349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:23:58.966790
License: Public Domain

COYNE, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. The right to trial by jury is expressly preserved by the Bill of Rights of both the United States Constitution and the Minnesota Constitution. U.S.Const, amend. VII; Minn. Const, art. I, § 4. The majority, however, arrogating unto itself the role of factfinder, has found *736waiver of that constitutional right despite written notice, served and filed, of the expectation of all three defendants that the facts of this case would be found by a jury.
The trial notice issued in response to the plaintiffs note of issue demanding a court trial was accompanied by a pre-trial questionnaire. Each party was directed to complete the questionnaire and return it to the court. Each of the three defendants answered question 14 — whether the trial was to be by jury or by the court — by stating that it was to be a jury trial. Each of the three defendants filed the questionnaire with the court, and defendants Ziegler and Gibbs-Cook also served it on the plaintiff. Nevertheless, when court convened on the appointed trial date the trial was still scheduled for trial by the court alone.
That the defendants’ demand for a jury trial did not escape the attention of the plaintiff, even though it appears that neither the judge nor the court administrator had noted it, is obvious from the events immediately preceding the commencement of the trial. As soon as they became aware of the absence of a jury panel, the defendants orally renewed their demand for a jury trial. The plaintiff then presented a written memorandum in support of his position that the defendants should be denied a jury trial.
In denying the defendants’ demand the trial court seems to have recognized that the defendants had not intentionally relinquished their right to a jury trial, for its ruling of a technical “waiver” was based on noncompliance with a nonexistent court rule. As the majority concedes, a statute setting rules of practice for an inferior court which no longer exists cannot supersede the Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure. Unlike the federal rules [Fed.R. Civ.P. 38(b) ], neither the Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure nor the first judicial district’s rules of practice set a format or deadline for a demand for jury trial, There are, of course, some practical limitations on the assertion of the right to a jury trial: a party cannot acquiesce in a court trial and then, when disappointed in the outcome, demand a jury trial. See Parsons Electric Co. v. Village of Watertown, 283 Minn. 505, 509-10, 169 N.W.2d 20, 22-23 (1969); Pearson v. Bertelson, 249 Minn. 218, 223, 82 N.W.2d 66, 70 (1957). Here, however, both written and oral demands were made prior to trial.
The majority rather cavalierly dismisses the written demand made several months prior to trial as nothing more than simply marking “jury trial” on the court’s questionnaire and then finds waiver in the failure to reiterate the demand prior to the morning of trial. Certainly, hindsight suggests the desirability of repeating the demand at the pre-trial conference, but unless one takes the position that the district court’s pre-trial questionnaire is nothing but make-work, there should be no necessity for repetitive demands in order to preserve a constitutional right. A court should indulge every reasonable presumption against waiver. Moreover, a party should be able to rely on the assertion made in a document filed with the court and served on the adversary pursuant to the court’s direction. To say, as does the majority, that such a demand is not a demand at all and that reiterating the demand as soon as it is apparent that the original demand has been overlooked and before trial commences constitutes the intentional relinquishment of the fundamental right to a jury trial seems to me to evince a scant regard for a right guaranteed by the Minnesota Constitution to remain inviolate.
Accordingly, I would reverse and remand to the district court for a jury trial.