Rudel v. Service Corporation International

Filing 58

ORDER denying 53 Motion to Strike Plaintiff's jury demand.(Signed by Judge Hilda G Tagle) Parties notified.(mserpa, 2)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
CORPUS CHRISTI DIVISION
JOHNATHAN B. RUDEL,

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Plaintiff,
VS.
SERVICE CORPORATION
INTERNATIONAL, et al,
Defendants.

CIVIL NO. 2:13-CV-351

ORDER
Defendants Service Corporation International and SCI Texas Funeral
Services, Inc. DBA Memory Gardens Funeral Home filed a motion to strike
Plaintiff‘s jury demand.

D.E. 53.

Defendants concede that Plaintiff timely

requested a jury trial. Id., p. 1, ¶ 1. Plaintiff responded and opposes Defendants’
motion. D.E. 55. After considering, the motion, the response, the evidence and the
arguments of counsel, the Court denies Defendants’ motion.
Plaintiff Jonathan Rudel (Rudel) signed a document entitled Principles of
Employment in 1999, after an SCI entity bought his prior employer. D.E. 53-2, 39-1
(affidavit Rudel). The document states in part, “In order to ensure equitable and
cost-effective resolution of these matters, employment related disputes will be

resolved by arbitration, in accordance with the following procedures.” D.E. 53-2, p.
2 (emphasis added).

As part of the agreement, there is a “NOTICE TO
NOTICE

EMPLOYEE”
EMPLOYEE that states,
BY SIGNING THIS AGREEMENT, YOU ARE AGREEING TO HAVE
COMPANY
ANY AND ALL DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR COMPANY
EXCEPT THOSE SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED IN SECTION 2
ABOVE) DECIDED BY BINDING ARBITRATION AND YOU ARE
YOUR
TRIAL.
WAIVING YOUR RIGHT TO A JURY OR COURT TRIAL

Id. (emphasis in original).
Defendants do not seek to enforce the arbitration agreement.

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Instead,

Defendants argue that the arbitration agreement also constitutes a waiver of a trial
by jury, separate and apart from the arbitration clause.
Defendants rely upon Montalvo v. Aerotek, Inc., 5:13-CV-997, 2014 WL
668041 W.D. Tex. Nov. 14, 2014) to support their position. In Montalvo, the district
court enforced a jury waiver that read, “By executing this agreement, the parties
hereto knowingly and willingly waive any right they have under applicable law to a
trial by jury in any dispute arising out of or in any way related to this agreement or
the issues raised by any such dispute.” Id., at *13-14.
Although the right of trial by jury in civil actions is protected by the Seventh
Amendment to the Constitution, that right can be waived by the prior written
agreement of the parties. Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n v. Schor, 478 U.S.
833, 848-49 (1986). A jury trial waiver must be made knowingly and voluntarily,
and courts will indulge every reasonable presumption against finding a waiver. Id.
at 848.
Unlike the jury waiver found enforceable in Montalvo, the plain language of
the contractual provision in this case waives both a jury and a court trial in favor of
arbitration.

D.E. 53-2 (“YOU ARE WAIVING YOUR RIGHT TO A JURY OR

COURT TRIAL”). Defendants do not seek arbitration, but only to proceed to a
bench trial. The Court finds that the contractual agreement does not constitute a
separate jury trial waiver.
Accordingly, the Court DENIES Defendants’ motion (D.E. 53) to strike
Plaintiff’s jury demand.
It is so ORDERED.
ORDERED
Dated this 15th day of April, 2015.

___________________________________
Hilda Tagle
Senior United States District Judge

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