Caverly v. State

Citations

• 342 Conn. 226

Syllabus

Pursuant to statute ((Rev. to 2017) § 4-160b (a)), ''[t]he Office of the Claims Commissioner shall not accept or pay any subrogated claim or any claim directly or indirectly paid by or assigned to a third party.'' 342 Conn. 226 MARCH, 2022 227 Caverly v. State The plaintiff, the administrator of the estate of the decedent, J, sought to recover damages from the state for the allegedly wrongful death of J, who died while under the medical care of certain of the state's employees at a state university hospital. The plaintiff had filed a notice of claim with the claims commissioner, seeking permission to bring a medical malpractice action against the state for the alleged negligence of those state employees in prescribing certain medications to J, which allegedly resulted in J's death. Before the plaintiff received a decision from the claims commissioner, however, he filed a separate negligence action against the pharmacy that had filled J's prescriptions, C Co., and certain of C Co.'s corporate affiliates. Thereafter, the plaintiff received authori- zation from the claims commissioner and commenced the present action. Subsequently, the plaintiff's action against C Co. was settled for $2 million. The state then moved to dismiss the present action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the ground of sovereign immunity, claim- ing that, in light of the settlement with C Co., the medical malpractice claim against the state had been ''indirectly paid by . . . a third party'' within the meaning of § 4-160b (a). The trial court denied the state's motion to dismiss, concluding that § 4-160b (a) applies only to subro- gated or assigned claims and not to payments made by joint tortfeasors. On appeal from the trial court's denial of the state's motion to dismiss, held that the trial court correctly determined that the plaintiff's medical malpractice claim against the state was not ''indirectly paid by . . . a third party'' within the meaning of § 4-160b (a) by virtue of the p