In this State, the
boundaries between actions at common law and actions of equitable
jurisdiction, are ascertained in conformity to the rules which prevail
in England upon that subject. In many of the other States the boundaries
are less precise. In some of them every cause is to be tried in a court
of common law, and upon that foundation every action may be considered
as an action at common law, to be determined by a jury, if the parties,
or either of them, choose it. Hence the same irregularity and confusion
would be introduced by a compliance with this proposition, that I have
already noticed as resulting from the regulation proposed by the
Pennsylvania minority. In one State a cause would receive its
determination from a jury, if the parties, or either of them, requested
it; but in another State, a cause exactly similar to the other, must be
decided without the intervention of a jury, because the State
judicatories varied as to common-law jurisdiction.
It is obvious, therefore, that the Massachusetts proposition, upon this
subject cannot operate as a general regulation, until some uniform plan,
with respect to the limits of common-law and equitable jurisdictions,
shall be adopted by the different States.
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