Eggshell Skull Rule Case Study

CHAPTER-1

Introduction
The eggshell skull is also called the thin skull rule or colloquially as ‘You may take your victim as they come’ and comes from the Latin maxim talem qualem. This rule holds one liable for all consequences resulting from his or her tortious (usually negligent) activities leading to an injury to another person, even if the victim suffers an unusually high level of damage (e.g. due to a pre-existing vulnerability or medical condition). The term implies that if a person had a skull as delicate as that of the shell of an egg, and a tortfeasor who was unaware of the condition injured that person's head, causing the skull unexpectedly to break, the defendant would be held liable for all damages resulting from the wrongful contact, even if the tortfeasor did not intend to cause such a severe injury.

For instance, suppose the plaintiff in a personal injury case is a bicycle repairman who negligently “fixes” a child’s bicycle. Unknown to the repairman, the child has hemophilia. While the child is riding the bicycle, it breaks because the repairman did not fix it correctly. The child falls and scrapes her knees on the pavement and has to be hospitalized due to severe blood loss caused by her hemophilia. In this case, the plaintiff is responsible for all of the child’s hospital bills, even though he did not foresee that the child might bleed dangerously if she fell off the broken bicycle.
The eggshell skull rule is based on the idea that it is fair for a defendant to compensate an injured person for the harm he actually caused. Therefore, the defendant must take the plaintiff “as he finds him,” invisible medical conditions and all. The defendant is not, however, required to show a higher duty of care to the eggshell plaintiff. The duty of care is the same whether or not a plaintiff has a pre-existing physical, mental or emotional