What order must legal and equitable claims be tried in if they involve common fact issues?

In cases where legal and equitable claims involve common fact issues, the legal claim is tried first before the jury. This order is grounded in the historical context of how legal and equitable claims were treated separately. Legal claims (typically those seeking monetary damages) are entitled to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment. When a case contains both equitable and legal claims, it is imperative to present the legal claim first to ensure the jury can establish the underlying facts without interference from the equitable proceedings.

This sequence preserves the right to a jury trial while allowing the court to resolve any equitable issues afterward, as they are dependent on the facts established during the legal trial. This practice ensures that the jury's findings on the factual issues are given precedence, which can be relevant to the equitable claims that follow.

Splitting the claims into separate trials or leaving the order to the court's discretion can complicate the process and may not adequately address the need to respect the right to a jury trial for legal issues. Thus, trying the legal claim first is the established procedure in handling cases that involve both legal and equitable claims with overlapping facts.