The Eggshell Plaintiff in a Personal Injury Case

Ever heard of an "eggshell plaintiff?" I only heard of it in law school - but it is a very simple personal injury concept illustrated by an simple example - a rear-end car accident. In this example you are the defendant, and you have rear ended a car with two passengers in it. One is an 18 year old triathlete in great shape, the other is his 99 year old grandmother who just had spinal surgery.

All other things being equal, it is likely that the 99 year old grandmother will have worse injuries than her grandson - perhaps even catastrophic injuries. Can you think of any reason you should not be responsible for all of her injuries? Of course not - there is no good reason!

This is the idea behind the eggshell plaintiff. "The tortfeasor takes the person he injures as he finds him. If, by reason of some preexisting condition, his victim is more susceptible to injury, the tortfeasor is not thereby exonerated from liability." Rideau v. Los Angeles Transit Lines, 124 Cal.App.2d 466, 471 (1954). The substance of this doctrine is found in CACI 3928 (Unusually Susceptible Plaintiff):

You must decide the full amount of money that will reasonably and fairly compensate [name of plaintiff] for all damages caused by the wrongful conduct of [name of defendant], even if [name of plaintiff] was more susceptible to injury than a normally healthy person would have been, and even if a normally healthy person would not have suffered similar injury.

Oakland has a lot of older citizens, who, naturally, are more likely to have health issues that would make them an eggshell plaintiff. At the personal injury law firm of Clancy & Diaz, we see this all the time and regularly represent eggshell plaintiffs.

Pete Clancy is a personal injury attorney in Oakland. He was named a Rising Star by SuperLawyers Magazine and is a life member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.