Mary Margaret Upchurch and Rickie Upchurch v. Adam I. Lewis, M.d. and Jackson Neurosurgery Clinic, Pllc

Summary

On writ of certiorari, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals' determination that insufficient evidence supported a jury verdict in favor of a neurosurgeon and his clinic in a medical-malpractice suit arising from spinal-cord-stimulator surgery that left Mary Upchurch with a spinal hematoma and permanent paralysis. The court held that the Upchurches' failure to object at trial to Dr. Lewis's testimony — although he was never tendered or accepted as an expert witness — waived that objection under the contemporaneous-objection rule, so his unobjected-to testimony that he followed the standard of care became part of the evidence sufficient to sustain the verdict. The court also upheld the denial of a new trial, the denial of a directed verdict on the Merit Health Rankin nursing staff's liability, and the jury instructions, and it affirmed the Court of Appeals' unchallenged affirmance of the cost-assessment order in the consolidated cause.