Hughes v. PeaceHealth

The right of trial by jury “occupies so firm a place in our history and jurisprudence!,]” Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 US 474, 486, 55 S Ct 296, 79 L Ed 603 (1935), that it can be said to define our system of justice. So central is the right to jury trial that this court should not retreat from principles it has *173recognized as essential to the preservation of that right without doing so directly and with clear justification. Because the majority has so retreated, I must dissent.

Since 1927 the court has consistently held that the right to jury trial is “not to be narrowly construed and is not limited…