Companions & Homemakers, Inc. v. A&B Homecare Solutions, LLC

Citations

• 348 Conn. 132

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendant for its allegedly tortious interference with contractual relations and its alleged violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA) (§ 42-110a et seq.). The parties are home care service providers that participate in the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders, which is operated by the Department of Social Services. In connection with that program, the parties each entered into a provider enrollment agreement with the department, pursuant to which the department matched each party with elderly individuals who were at risk of being placed in nursing homes, to whom the parties' employees provided nonmedical personal, home- making and companion care. In 2016, the department notified program participants that they would be required to use a new electronic billing system effective January 1, 2017. The plaintiff invited other program participants to join in a lawsuit challenging the implementation of the new billing system, which the defendant and three other program partici- pants accepted. The defendant's chief executive officer, G, represented to the plaintiff that the defendant had operational concerns about the new system and had not been given enough time to train its employees, and he personally approved the filing of a legal action against the depart- ment. In that action, the program participants alleged that they were unable to implement the new system and sought injunctive relief. The plaintiff subsequently learned that the defendant had been using the new system to bill the department, but G assured the plaintiff that the defendant had only been testing the system and was convinced that it was unworkable. In December, 2016, the program participants were denied prejudgment relief against the department, and, after G confirmed that the defendant would like to continue participating in the lawsuit, the plaintiff filed an appeal that included the defendant as an appellant. The day after the