Order entered on February 10, 1961 granting reargument and on reargument granting defendants’ motion for a trial by jury, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the motion denied, without costs. We conclude that the first and third causes of action are in law and would ordinarily give the defendant a right to a trial by jury on the issues raised thereunder. However, we find that such right was waived by the interposition of equitable counterclaims. These counterclaims are independent of, and seek relief, beyond that encompassed by the complaint. They are, therefore, more than counterclaims “in name only” (Di Menna v. Cooper & Evans Co., 220 N. Y. 391, 396) but rather are independent causes of action unrelated to the complaint to an extent that their assertion constitutes a waiver of the right to a trial by jury (see Feldman v. Sturm, 278 App. Div. 21). While only two of the defendants here interposed such equitable counterclaims their codefendants have, in effect, adopted and ratified the waiver occasioned thereby by asserting their defenses in a joint answer. The same result must follow with respect to Berger’s request for a trial by jury on his affirmative defense. Concur — Breitel, J. P., Valente, McNally and Bastow, JJ.; Rabin, J., concurs in the result as follows: While I agree that if the defendants had any right to a trial by jury, they waived the same, I conclude that they had no such right in this action. The first and third causes of action, as well as the second, are equitable
