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Plaza Properties Ltd. v. Prime Bus. Invs. Inc.

Defendants waived their right to a jury trial by failing to object when the trial court granted them a continuance on the condition that they proceed with a bench trial.

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We granted certiorari in this case to consider whether the appellants, Plaza Properties, Ltd. Plaza and its sole shareholder, Wayne Weeks, waived their right to a jury trial by failing to object when the trial court issued an order granting their request for a continuance but conditioning the continuance on the appellants proceeding with a bench trial at the next available non-jury calendar.1 We conclude that the appellants had a duty to object to this order, and that their failure to do so bars them from asserting on appeal that the trial court improperly denied them a jury trial. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

Appellee Prime Business Investments, Inc. “Prime”, sued the appellants for breach of a business contract. On August 1, 1997, the trial court notified the parties that the case was scheduled for a non-jury trial on September 10, 1997. On September 3, 1997, Plaza and Weeks filed a written demand for a jury trial. Following a hearing on September 9, 1997, the trial court entered an order stating that Plaza and Weeks were not entitled to a jury trial because they filed their demand less than 10 days before trial, which violated the trial court’s standing order requiring that jury demands be filed at least 10 days before trial. In its order, the court also granted a motion for a continuance that the appellants’ had filed based upon counsel’s conflict with another trial. The court continued the case “until the next available non-jury calendar subject to the parties proceeding with this matter at that time without the right to a jury trial.”

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