Successful Appeal to Vacate $18.8 Million Judgment in Tortious Interference Case

Client Type: Private Company

We successfully represented Medsurant LLC in an appeal to vacate an $18.8 million dollar jury verdict in a case alleging tortious interference.

In June 2015, SpecialtyCare IOM Services LLC sued one of its largest rivals, Medsurant LLC, and several affiliates in Davidson County (TN) Chancery Court. Medsurant and SpecialtyCare are competitors in the neurophysiologic monitoring services industry. SpecialtyCare sued Medsurant for hiring several technicians from a bankrupt monitoring company that SpecialtyCare was in the process of acquiring. SpecialtyCare claimed that Medsurant tortiously interfered with its contracts and business relationships with the technicians and the hospitals that the technicians served. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury awarded SpecialtyCare $2.8 million in compensatory damages and $16 million in punitive damages, which was among the ten largest awards of punitive damages by a Tennessee jury since 2005.

Bass, Berry & Sims was retained to handle Medsurant’s appeal shortly after the Chancery Court approved the damages award. On appeal, our team argued that the trial proceeding had been rife with errors, including the entry and refusal to set aside a default judgment that the Chancery Court entered against Medsurant as a discovery sanction. In July 2018, the Tennessee Court of Appeals overturned the default judgment and vacated the $18.8 million damages award, concluding that the default judgment should not have been entered. A copy of the decision is available here.

Additional details about the case were discussed in the articles:

Medsurant LLC is a leading provider of outsourced Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring (IOM) services to hospitals and surgeons throughout the United States.

We successfully represented Medsurant LLC in an appeal to vacate an $18.8 million dollar jury verdict in a case alleging tortious interference.

In June 2015, SpecialtyCare IOM Services LLC sued one of its largest rivals, Medsurant LLC, and several affiliates in Davidson County (TN) Chancery Court. Medsurant and SpecialtyCare are competitors in the neurophysiologic monitoring services industry. SpecialtyCare sued Medsurant for hiring several technicians from a bankrupt monitoring company that SpecialtyCare was in the process of acquiring. SpecialtyCare claimed that Medsurant tortiously interfered with its contracts and business relationships with the technicians and the hospitals that the technicians served. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury awarded SpecialtyCare $2.8 million in compensatory damages and $16 million in punitive damages, which was among the ten largest awards of punitive damages by a Tennessee jury since 2005.

Bass, Berry & Sims was retained to handle Medsurant’s appeal shortly after the Chancery Court approved the damages award. On appeal, our team argued that the trial proceeding had been rife with errors, including the entry and refusal to set aside a default judgment that the Chancery Court entered against Medsurant as a discovery sanction. In July 2018, the Tennessee Court of Appeals overturned the default judgment and vacated the $18.8 million damages award, concluding that the default judgment should not have been entered. A copy of the decision is available here.

Additional details about the case were discussed in the articles:

Medsurant LLC is a leading provider of outsourced Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring (IOM) services to hospitals and surgeons throughout the United States.