ch the same Justice spoke for the Court as in the
Slocum Case, it was held that a trial court had the right to enter a
judgment on the verdict of the jury for the plaintiff after overruling a
motion by defendant for dismissal on the ground of insufficient
evidence. The Court owned that its ruling was out of line with some of
its expressions in the Slocum Case.[51] In the second case[52] the Court
sustained a United States district court in Arkansas, in an action
between parties of diverse citizenship, in rejecting a motion by
defendant for dismissal and peremptorily directing a verdict for the
plaintiff. The Supreme Court held that there was ample evidence to
support the verdict and that the trial court, in following Arkansas
procedure, had acted consistently with the Federal Conformity Act.[53]
In the third case,[54] which involved an action against the Government
for benefits under a war risk insurance policy which had been allowed to
lapse, the trial court directed a verdict for the Government on the
ground of the insufficiency of the evidence and was sustained in so
doing by both the circuit court of appeals and the Supreme Court. Three
Justices, speaking by Justice Black, dissented in an opinion in which it
is asserted that "today's decision marks a continuation of the gradual
process of judicial erosion which in one-hundred-fifty years has slowly
worn away a major portion of the essential guarantee of the Seventh
Amendment."[55] That the Court should experience occasional difficulty
in harmonizing the idea of preserving the historic common law covering
the relations of judge and jury with the notion of a developing common
law is not surprising.

WAIVER OF RIGHT OF TRIAL BY JURY

Parties have a right to enter into a stipulation waiving a jury and
submitting the case to the court upon an agreed statement of facts, even
without any legislative provision for waiver.[56] "* * * Congress has,
by statute, provided for the trial of issues of fact in civil cases by
the court without the intervention of a jury, only when the parties
waive their right to a jury by a stipulation in writing. Revised
Statutes sections 648, 649."[57] This statutory provision for a written
stipulation, however, does not preclude other kinds of waivers.[58] But
every reasonable presumption should be indulged against a waiver.[59]
None is to be implied from a request for a directed verdict.[60]

APPEALS FROM STATE COURTS TO THE SUPREME COURT