Note:
George L. Hangs, Jr., Constitutional Law—Jury Trial—Defendant in Suit by an Administrative Agency to Collect Statutory Civil Penalties for Violation of Agency Orders Has a Seventh Amendment Right to a Jury Trial. United States v. J.B. Williams Co., 498 F.2d 414 (2d Cir. 1974), 53 TEXAS L. REV. 387 (1975).

In this note, the author discusses Judge Friendly’s opinion in Williams, which holds that a defendant in a suit by an administrative agency to collect monetary penalties for violations of an agency order is entitled to a jury trial under the seventh amendment. The author argues that Friendly takes the wrong approach to resolving the seventh amendment issue. After criticizing Friendly’s interpretations of U.S. v. Jepson, Hepner v. U.S., and Curtis v. Loether, the author suggests that the more appropriate means of resolving the seventh amendment issue would have been to consider the policies of the Federal Trade Commission act with those of the seventh amendment. Ultimately, the author concludes that for the sake of effective administration of the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Commission’s findings of fact ought not to be subjected to re-examination de novo in subsequent judicial proceedings.