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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MAINE

SOUTH PORT MARINE, LLC, PLAINTIFF v. GULF OIL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP and BOSTON TOWING & TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, L.P., DEFENDANTS

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Civil No. 98-20-P-H

ORDER ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO STRIKE PLAINTIFF'S JURY DEMAND AND ON PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO AMEND COMPLAINT

The Supreme Court has devoted a considerable amount of its attention in the past forty years to Seventh Amendment jurisprudence, preserving the right to jury trial in federal courts in "suits at common law." All those cases have involved distinguishing between common law and equity, since jury trial historically was available, and therefore constitutionally required, in the common law courts but not in equity. Routinely, however, the Supreme Court has also observed that at the time of ratification of the Seventh Amendment, the courts had three bases of jurisdiction--common law, equity and admiralty--and that jury trial was available only in the first, see e.g., City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes, Ltd., ___ U.S. ___, 119 S. Ct. 1624 (1999); Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc., 523 U.S. 340, 118 S. Ct. 1279 (1998); Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg, 492 U.S. 33 (1989); Tull v. United States, 481 U.S. 412 (1987). In this lawsuit under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, 33 U.S.C.

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