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GUPTA v. NEW BRITAIN GENERAL HOSPITAL12/31/1996
nd so decided to dismiss him. This determination was based on a number of factors, including the plaintiff's inability to make decisions in the operating room, his unwillingness to accept responsibility for errors, and gaps in the plaintiff's "knowledge base." The plaintiff was informed of his immediate dismissal from the residency program.
The plaintiff, with the assistance of counsel, exercised all the procedural rights of review afforded to him under the hospital's bylaws. His dismissal was affirmed, first by an ad hoc committee of the medical staff and,
thereafter, by the hospital's appellate review committee.
After various unsuccessful efforts to challenge his dismissal as a violation of his civil rights and as a result of discriminatory practices, the plaintiff filed the present action seeking damages because of alleged breaches of the residency agreement by the hospital. The plaintiff's complaint alleged that his dismissal violated the residency agreement because the hospital had: (1) failed to honor the obligations inherent in the residency agreement as a contract of employment; (2) failed to provide proper training facilities as required by the residency agreement; (3) acted arbitrarily, capriciously or in bad faith; and (4) violated an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
The hospital moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted. The court concluded that because "the consistent purpose of the [residency] agreement to provide an educational opportunity," the plaintiff and the hospital had entered into an educational, rather than employment, relationship. The
court, therefore, characterized the decision to dismiss the plaintiff as an academic decision that lay "solely within the province of the medical community." With respect to the plaintiff's claim that the hospital's residency program was unreasonable or inadequate, the trial court held that, "without a factual basis," the plaintiff had failed to state a cause of action for breach of contract on this ground. In the absence of evidence that the hospital had acted "arbitrarily, capriciously or in bad faith," the trial court held that the plaintiff's dismissal was not a breach of the residency agreement. The trial court did not address explicitly the plaintiff's claim that, in dismissing him, the hospital had violated a covenant of good faith or fair dealing.
On appeal, the plaintiff renews the claims that he made at trial, adding only that the trial court overlooked genuine issues of material fact in granting summary judgment. "The standards governing our review of a trial court's decision to grant a motion for summary judgment are well established. Practice Book ยง 384 provides that summary judgment shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, affidavits and any other proof submitted show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Doty v. Mucci, 238 Conn. 800, 805, 679 A.2d 945 (1996). Applying these standards, we reject the plaintiff's claims and affirm the judgment of the trial court.
I
In the plaintiff's principal challenge to the trial court's decision upholding his dismissal, he takes issue with the court's characterization of the nature of the residency agreement. He contends that the court improperly determined that, as a matter of law, the residency agreement gave rise to an educational, rather than
employment, relationship and, therefore, mischaracterized his dismissal as an academic decision, to which courts> should normally defer, rather than a termination of employmen
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