Whitlock v. Jackson

Whitlock (plaintiff), representing a decedent's estate, sued officers (defendants) over injuries sustained during an arrest that led to the decedent's death; the jury, answering special interrogatories, found the defendants liable for battery but not for a Fourth Amendment excessive-force violation, awarding $29,700. Whitlock moved post-verdict for an additur or new trial based on the arguable inconsistency between the two findings, and the defendants argued she waived that challenge by not objecting before the jury was discharged.

Whether a party's failure to object to inconsistencies in a jury's answers to special interrogatories before the jury's discharge waives the right to raise those inconsistencies in a later motion or on appeal.