Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/255

 502us1$$9Z 08-21-96 15:22:40 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 93 (1991)

97

Opinion of the Court

II We first address the jury trial issue. The case below was briefed and argued before our decision in Teamsters v. Terry, 494 U. S. 558 (1990). Although Terry was handed down on March 20, 1990, well before the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the decision below neither cites nor discusses Terry. To determine whether a particular action will resolve legal rights, and therefore give rise to a jury trial right, we examine both the nature of the issues involved and the remedy sought. Id., at 565. “ ‘First, we compare the statutory action to 18th-century actions brought in the courts of England prior to the merger of the courts of law and equity. Second, we examine the remedy sought and determine whether it is legal or equitable in nature.’ ” Ibid., citing Tull v. United States, 481 U. S. 412, 417–418 (1987). The second inquiry is the more important in our analysis. Terry, supra, at 565, citing Granfinanciera, S. A. v. Nordberg, 492 U. S. 33, 42 (1989). In Terry, we applied settled principles of Seventh Amendment interpretation to a claim for an employer’s breach of a collective-bargaining agreement under § 301 and the union’s breach of the duty of fair representation. Generally, an award of money damages was the traditional form of relief offered in the courts of law. Terry, supra, at 570, citing Curtis v. Loether, 415 U. S. 189, 196 (1974). Because we found that the damages sought were neither analogous to equitable restitutionary relief, Tull, 481 U. S., at 424, nor incidental to or intertwined with injunctive relief, ibid., we concluded that the remedy had none of the attributes required for an exception to the general rule, and thus found the remedy sought to be legal. Terry, supra, at 570, 571. Petitioner contends that, although he seeks injunctive relief as well as damages, the injunctive relief is incidental to the damages, and not vice versa, and that his claim for lost wages cannot be treated as restitutionary incident to an