Opinion ID: 1606009
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether Dr. Guild's Counsel Erred When He Made Comments Regarding Hancock's Divorce Attorney After Young Invoked the Attorney-Client Privilege.

Text: ¶ 38. Young contends Dr. Guild's counsel inappropriately commented to the jury that they would not hear from Hancock's divorce attorney, Herring, despite Young's claim of the attorney/client privilege. Young claims that these comments were prejudicial to her, since they allowed the jury to consider that Herring's testimony would have been detrimental to Young. Dr. Guild responds that any error was cured when the trial judge instructed the jury to disregard his counsel's comment about Herring. ¶ 39. In Parker v. Jones County Community Hospital, 549 So.2d 443, 445 (Miss.1989), this Court ruled that certain testimony violated the Mississippi Rules of Evidence and was inadmissible. The Court then noted that the trial court sustained the objection to the testimony and instructed the jury to disregard the testimony. Id. We stated that [t]he law of error and curative instructions seems to be an analog to harmless error. Id. Generally speaking, our law presumes that jurors follow the trial judge's instructions, as upon their oaths they are obliged to do. Id. at 446 (citing Jerry Lee's Grocery, Inc. v. Thompson, 528 So.2d 293, 295 (Miss.1988)). Thus, a trial court's admonishment to the jury to disregard an improper question and answer generally is deemed sufficient to cure any taint. The Court concludes that any taint that resulted from counsel's comment about the absence of Herring was cured by the court's instruction to the jury to disregard the comment. This issue is without merit.