Question: What does it mean when we refer to someone as an “egg shell thin” plaintiff?
Answer: It means that plaintiff has a pre-existing medical condition which even if it was unknown to the defendant, does not relieve a negligent defendant from liability for an aggravation or exacerbation of plaintiff’s medical condition. See below. In the State of Indiana, it is a well-settled rule that “a tortfeasor takes the injured person as he finds the person and the tortfeasor is not relieved from liability merely because an injured party’s pre-existing physical condition makes the person more susceptible to injury.” When some injury is foreseeable and the defendant’s negligence proximately caused the aggravated injury, this rule allows recovery for an injury even if its ultimate extent was unforeseeable. Moreover, a defendant is liable for the aggravation or exacerbation of a current injury to the extent that the defendant’s conduct has resulted in the aggravation of the pre-existing condition, but not for the condition as it was prior to the negligent conduct of the defendant. Further, a plaintiff’s subsequent disability cannot be apportioned between the current injury and a prior nondisabling, asymptomatic condition, and the subsequent injury does not prevent a plaintiff from recovering damages for the entire disability from the defendant.
