EAST ST. LOUIS – One side in a wrongful death suit at U.S. district court and both sides in a business dispute abandoned hope for jury trials.
On Feb. 2, Michael Blotevogel of Maryville moved to withdraw a jury demand for the estate of Glenn Lash in a suit against Sparta Community Hospital.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty originally planned to start trial last November, but he vacated the date in October.
In a conference on Jan. 25, Beatty said he couldn’t provide a firm date for a jury trial.
He said he could provide a date for a bench trial, so Blotevogel asked for one.
The hospital and a second defendant, physician Haresh Motwani, objected to a bench trial on the day Blotevogel filed his motion.
On Feb. 4, plaintiffs Pap-R-Products and Pap-R-Tainer filed a joint motion with defendants Studio 503 and Michael Walters for a settlement conference.
District Judge Staci Yandle granted it, and at their request she assigned Magistrate Judge Reona Daly to preside over the conference.
Daly has resolved discovery disputes in the suit, which alleges fraud and breach of contract in production and sale of coin rolls and wrappers.
Before the lockdown, Yandle planned to start trial last September.
At a status conference on Aug. 5, she didn’t change the date but she set another conference Aug. 19.
On Aug. 12, the parties jointly moved for leave to present testimony of certain witnesses via Zoom.
On Aug. 19, Yandle set trial to start on Feb. 1, and she granted the Zoom motion.
On Nov. 23, the parties moved for a conference about the trial date.
At a conference on Dec. 11, Yandle continued it to May 3.
In the joint motion for a settlement conference, the parties requested that Daly set it for the earliest date her docket would allow.
The U.S. Constitution and the Illinois Constitution guarantee the right to a jury trial in criminal and civil cases.
In 1970, delegates to the state’s constitutional convention defeated a proposal to reduce juries in civil trials from 12 to six.
Legislators carried out a reduction to six in 2015, but the Illinois Supreme Court declared their action unconstitutional in 2016.
In Kakos v. Butler, the Court found ample evidence that the drafters believed they were specifically preserving the right to a jury of 12.