Griffin Hospital v. ISOThrive, LLC

Citations

• 211 Conn. App. 254

Syllabus

The plaintiff sought to recover damages from the defendant for breach of contract, alleging that the defendant had failed to make the final payment for services rendered. The parties had entered into a research agreement for the plaintiff to study the potential benefits of the defendant's nutrition supplement on a certain group of individuals. The agreement was amended and was accompanied by a revised protocol concerning the characteristics of individuals suitable for the study. The defendant filed a counterclaim alleging that the plaintiff breached the parties' contract by, inter alia, failing to comply with the requirements of the agreement and the protocol regarding the population of individuals to be included in the study. Following a trial to the court, the court awarded the plaintiff damages for the defendant's breach of contract and prejudgment interest based on its finding that the defendant had wrongfully withheld funds from the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed to this court. Held: 1. The trial court properly concluded that the defendant had breached the research agreement by failing to pay a final invoice, the plaintiff having conducted the study in accordance with the agreement: contrary to the defendant's claim, the plaintiff was not obligated, under the definitive terms of the revised protocol and amended agreement, to perform any analysis to determine whether certain medications had the potential to interact with the ingredients in the supplement, as the language of the parties' revised protocol unambiguously provided that the plaintiff was required to exclude only potential study participants with diabetes or hypertension who were taking medication with a known potential to interact with the supplement; moreover, the language of the revised protocol, including the term ''overweight but otherwise healthy,'' was clear and unambiguous with respect to the selection of study partici- pants, as it set forth the criteria that, if met, would allow prospe