Procedure at the Intersection of Law and Equity: Veil Piercing and the Seventh Amendment

This Note addresses the multicircuit split that veil piercing’s “vexing” nature has created. The First, Second and Fifth Circuits, on varying theories, have found that there exists a federal right to a jury trial on veil-piercing issues. Conversely, the Sixth and Seventh Circuits have disagreed, holding that veil piercing is an action sounding primarily in equity outside the scope of the Seventh Amendment. Part I will briefly discuss the Supreme Court’s Seventh Amendment jurisprudence and explain how veil piercing falls into the Court’s awkward demarcation of law and equity. Part II will explore the legal and equitable history of veil-piercing actions, a topic that “courts and commentators rarely address . . . at length.” Part III will lay out the current Federal precedent on the issue. Finally, Part IV will argue that history and policy support putting veil-piercing questions to juries, that juries are well suited to this task, and address counterarguments by showing that judges and parties retain an array of tools to manage and control juries