Silver Hill Hospital, Inc. v. Kessler

Citations

• 200 Conn. App. 742

Syllabus

The plaintiff hospital sought to recover damages in connection with unpaid medical services that it provided to the defendant. The hospital billed Medicare for payment, which initially paid the entire balance. Subse- quently, Medicare rescinded coverage for a portion of the services after discovering that the defendant had workers' compensation coverage for a portion of those medical expenses. The hospital informed the defen- dant of this development and asked the defendant to contact Medicare to resolve the coverage dispute. The defendant refused to contact Medi- care and did not submit payment for the remaining balance to the hospital. Thereafter, the matter was referred to an attorney fact finder, who issued his report, finding that the defendant owed a balance to the plaintiff and that the defendant failed to prove her special defense of non compos mentis. The trial court overruled the defendant's objection to the fact finder's report and rendered judgment for the plaintiff. On appeal, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that the fact finder's conclu- sions were not based on evidence presented at trial. Held: 1. The defendant's claim that the fact finder's conclusions were not based on evidence presented at trial was unavailing, as there was adequate support in the record for the findings of fact reached by the fact finder; the record contained sufficient evidence for the fact finder to conclude that the plaintiff provided medical services to the defendant, that the defendant owed a balance for the services rendered, and that the defen- dant had not paid the balance and, therefore, the fact finder's findings were based on evidence presented at trial and were consistent with the applicable rule of practice (§ 19-8). 2. The defendant's claim that the fact finder improperly failed to consider her contention that the plaintiff had a duty to contact Medicare to resolve the coverage issue was unavailing, as the defendant's pleadings did not provide a legal framework fr