KAPITZKE v. MILLS CO

Where the cause of action set forth in a complaint is based on the plaintiff's claimed right to an accounting and a money judgment incident thereto, and the allegations of the complaint are designed to set up a fiduciary relationship between the plaintiff and the defendants, and to seek the relief prayed for on the basis of such relationship, there is pleaded a cause or causes of action "properly cognizable in equity" prior to 1880. Under these circumstances, a jury trial is a matter of the court's discretion, which should be exercised to promote the most expeditious disposition of the cause consistent with a legal and just determination of the issues presented. Such a disposition is more likely to follow from a trial by the court than from a trial by jury. Accordingly, a motion to strike the case from the jury list is granted.

BOOTH, J.

The action set forth in the complaint is based on the plaintiff's claimed right of an accounting and a money judgment as incident thereto. These and further allegations in the complaint are evidently designed to set up a fiduciary relationship between the plaintiff and the defendants, and to seek the relief prayed for on the basis of such relationship.

Thus is pleaded a cause or causes of action "properly cognizable in equity" prior to 1880. Bristol vs. Pitchard, 81 Conn. 451. Under these circumstances a jury trial is a matter of the court's discretion, which should be exercised to promote the most expeditious disposition of the cause consistent with a legal and just determination of the issues presented.

In the opinion of the court, after a review of the pleadings, this result is more likely to follow from a court trial than by a trial by a jury.