The defendant appealed from the trial court’s judgment for the plaintiffs, Linda Sobin, in her individual capacity and as administrator of the estate of her deceased husband, Peter Sobin, on their claims for wrongful death due to medical negligence and loss of consortium in connection with Peter’s death from a pulmonary embolism that occurred during his recovery from knee replacement surgery performed by an employee of the defendant. The defendant claimed, inter alia, that the court improperly failed to grant a mistrial based on the allegedly inflammatory and unduly prejudicial examination of a physician’s assistant, a key witness, by the plaintiffs’ counsel.
The Connecticut Appellate Court held in its September 2, 2025 Opinion that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in declining to strike the responses of the plaintiffs’ medical expert to certain hypothetical questions asked by the plaintiffs’ counsel or to grant any other relief regarding such testimony, as there was ample evidence admitted from which the jury could find the foundational facts underlying the hypothetical questions posed.
The Connecticut Appellate Court further held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant’s motion for a mistrial alleging that the limited examination of a physician’s assistant by the plaintiffs’ counsel was unnecessarily inflammatory and intended to prejudice the jury, as any potential prejudice to the defendant resulting from the challenged questioning of the physician’s assistant was satisfactorily dissipated by the court’s clear and concise curative instruction.
The Connecticut Appellate Court dismissed as moot the defendant’s claim that the trial court improperly precluded its medical expert from providing certain opinion testimony because the defendant failed to challenge all three independent grounds for precluding such testimony.
The Connecticut Appellate Court further held that the trial court properly instructed the jury that, in assessing the damages to award for wrongful death, the jury could award damages for Peter’s death itself, as the instruction was supported by the model civil jury instructions and case law, and, even if the defendant were correct that the court’s
instruction was improper, the defendant failed to demonstrate any harm.
The Connecticut Appellate Court held that the trial court properly granted the plaintiff’s motion for offer of compromise interest with respect to the wrongful death damages because defendant cited no appellate legal authority that an offer of compromise is rendered invalid if, in addition to agreeing to settle the matter for a sum certain, it also includes an alternative offer to reach a stipulated judgment, and such a result was not mandated by any language in § 52-192a.
The Connecticut Appellate Court affirmed the judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiffs on the jury’s verdict awarding $5.5 million in damages for wrongful death due to medical negligence and $3 million in damages for loss of consortium.
Source Sobin v. Orthopaedic Sports Specialists, P.C., AC 46510, AC 46730.
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