Thurgood Marshall

“ Thus, concern about judicial economy, to the extent that it supports respondent's position, remains an insufficient basis for departing from our longstanding commitment to preserving a litigant's right to a jury trial.
Respondent argues that notwithstanding our resolution of the collateral-estoppel issue, we should affirm the Court of Appeals' judgment because the record indicates that the District Court would have directed a verdict in favor of respondent on the § 1981 claims even if those claims had been litigated before a jury. ”

“ It would be anomalous to hold that a district court may not deprive a litigant of his right to a jury trial by resolving an equitable claim before a jury hears a legal claim raising common issues, but that a court may accomplish the same result by erroneously dismissing the legal claim. Such a holding would be particularly unfair here because Lytle was required to join his legal and equitable claims to avoid the bar of res judicata. ”

“ In respondent's view, if an appellate court finds that a trial court's dismissal of legal claims was erroneous and remands the legal claims to the trial court, that case would in effect constitute a separate action and therefore be subject to collateral estoppel under Parklane Hosiery Co.
We are not persuaded. Only the District Court's erroneous [3] dismissal of the § 1981 claims enabled that court to resolve issues common to both claims, issues that otherwise would have been resolved by a jury. ”