This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
Here's a plain English summary of this rule.
If nobody asks for a jury trial on a certain issue, the judge will decide that issue instead of a jury. Normally, if you want a jury to hear part of your case, you have to ask for it within a certain time limit, as explained in Rule 38. If you miss that deadline, you lose your automatic right to a jury on that issue.
But this rule gives the judge some flexibility. Even if you forgot to ask for a jury trial in time, the judge can still decide to let a jury hear the case anyway. Someone would need to file a motion asking the judge to do this. The judge then gets to make the final call on whether to allow it.
This means missing the jury demand deadline is not always the end of the road. You still have a chance to get a jury trial if you ask the judge and explain why it makes sense for your case. However, this is left entirely up to the judge's judgment, so there is no guarantee the request will be granted.
