Borkowski v. Sacheti

In Borkowski v. Sacheti, 43 Conn. App. 294, 315, 682 A.2d 1095, cert. denied, 239 Conn. 945, 686 A.2d 120 (1996), the trial court refused to charge the jury on the lost chance count of the plaintiff's complaint because it determined that such a cause of action did not exist in Connecticut. Borkowski v. Sacheti, supra, 43 Conn. App. 296. Because the jury was not allowed to determine the issue, which was tantamount to a directed verdict for the defendant, this court ordered a new trial. Id., 315. In that case, the court allowed the defendant to admit evidence to show that the plaintiff's decedent was a noncompliant patient who did not attend to his own medical needs and caused his own death. Id. The Court held that it was reversible error for a trial court, without having considered the evidentiary basis of such claim, to refuse to submit a lost chance claim to the jury. The court held that LaBieniec v. Baker enunciated the proper elements necessary to prove a lost chance claim and stated that a plaintiff, to prove his or her entitlement to recovery, must demonstrate lost chance in terms of probability, not possibility. Id., 311.