Tennessee Code Annotated
Tenn. Code Ann. § 21-1-103 (2026)
Right to trial by jury
✓ current as of May 2026
Either party to a suit in chancery is entitled, upon application, to a jury to try and determine any material fact in dispute, save in cases involving complicated accounting, as to such accounting and those elsewhere excepted by law or by this code, and all the issues of fact in any proper cases, shall be submitted to one (1) jury.
Acts 1976, ch. 436, § 1; T.C.A., § 21-1011.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 33
cases (2 in the last 5 years), 1980–2024 · leading case: Larry Sneed v. The City of Red Bank, Tennessee, 459 S.W.3d 17 (Tenn. 2014).
Larry Sneed v. The City of Red Bank, Tennessee, 459 S.W.3d 17 (Tenn. 2014). “Tenn.Code Ann. § 21-1-103 (2009) (emphasis added).”
Smith Cnty. Educ. Ass'n v. Anderson, 676 S.W.2d 328 (Tenn. 1984). ““In 1846, the legislature passed the forerunner of T.C.A. § 21-1-103, which was the exclusive right to a jury in a purely equitable case.”
David G. Young v. City of Lafollette, 479 S.W.3d 785 (Tenn. 2015). “See Tenn.Code Ann. § 21-1-103. 1. Constitutional right to jury trial The Tennessee Constitution provides “[t]hat the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate, and no religious or political test shall ever be required as a qualification for jurors.”
Clark v. Crow, 37 S.W.3d 919 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2000). “Tenn.Code Ann. § 21-1-103 (1994). A summary of the right in the State of Tennessee to have a case tried by jury can be found in Jones v.”
Win Myint & wife Patti KI. Myint v. Allstate Ins. Co., 970 S.W.2d 920 (Tenn. 1998). “Rather, the right exists only to the extent provided by Tenn.Code Ann. § 21-1-103. This statute provides a right to have "any material fact in dispute” tried by a jury in chancery, but it does not require that the jury also decide all mixed questions of law and fact.”
Keisling v. Keisling, 196 S.W.3d 703 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2005). “In that pleading, Grandparents demanded a jury for “any and all disputed issues of material fact in this matter, whether raised by the mother’s initial petition, the father’s amended counter-petition, or this cross-claim against the Father” pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated §…”
Sasser v. Averitt Express, Inc., 839 S.W.2d 422 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1992). “However, Tenn.Code Ann. § 21-1-103 (1980) provides a broad statutory right to a jury trial in equity cases.”
Wright v. Quillen, 909 S.W.2d 804 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1995). “” Tenn.Code Ann. § 21-1-103. The right to a jury in an equitable matter is not the common law right guaranteed by the constitution.”
Hannah v. Pitney Bowes, Inc., 739 F. Supp. 1131 (E.D. Tenn. 1989). “did not address the application of T.C.A. § 21-1-103 and merely observed that nowhere in T.”
State v. Hartley, 790 S.W.2d 276 (Tenn. 1990). “Implicit in the use of the “show cause” procedure is that fact issues will be determined in a bench trial; otherwise, the summary nature of the proceeding would be defeated and the public would be exposed to danger for a longer period than that decreed by the legislature.…”
Town of Smyrna v. Ridley, 730 S.W.2d 318 (Tenn. 1987). “However, the legislature has granted a right to trial by jury in certain chancery cases as follows: T.C.A. § 21-1-103. Right to trial by jury.”
Potts v. Mayforth, 59 S.W.3d 167 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2001). “Defendant Potts argues that the Court erred in denying him the right to a jury trial on his Motion for Sanctions entered and relies upon T.C.A. 21-1-103 for his alleged right to a jury trial.”
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