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Written by Rachel Lynn Foley, Kansas City Missouri Bankruptcy Attorney.

In re Pena, (1st Cir.BAP (Mass.))

December 17, 2008: Jury - Adversary defendants were not entitled to a jury trial.

A Massachusetts bankruptcy court did not err in denying the adversary defendants' request for a jury trial, the First Circuit's Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) has held. The defendants did not request a jury trial prior to the bankruptcy court's entry of default, but only did so in their late-filed answer to the Chapter 7 debtors' complaint. The defendants thus had no constitutional right to trial by jury, and they failed to identify a specific federal statute that guaranteed them a right to jury trial.