Throughout our lives, we get bumps and bruises. Sometimes we get injured in the injuries leave lasting effects. Say for instance, when you were in you early 20’s you had accident. Because of your injuries you needed surgery on your back. You attend rehab and the surgery was successful. Now fast forward ten years. You are driving to work and you are side swiped by a car whose driver is on their phone-texting. The ambulance arrives and they load you on the gurney. You notice you are have severe, dull, aching pain in your back, exactly where you had the surgery previously. After being released from the hospital you attend physical therapy and you are able to get back on your feet. Then you make a claim against the insurance company for the driver that hit you. The first thing the insurance company is going to say is that your current injuries really aren’t their fault. You had a “preexisting” condition which was just “aggravated” by their distracted driver. This kind of obfuscation is why hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer is vital.
The insurance company doesn’t get a pass just because you had a previous injury. In fact, Texas follows something called the “Eggshell Skull Doctrine” or you take your victim as you find them. The application of this rule means that the person who caused the injury may be liable for aggravation of a pre-existing physical condition of the plaintiff caused by the tortfeasor. In other words, the person who hurt you does not get to simply walk away and say, too bad, you were already injured before I got there.
The leading case announcing the eggshell skull rule is a Wisconsin case, Vosburg v. Putney, 80 Wis. 523, 50 N.W. 403 (1891), though it is not the earliest eggshell skull case even in Wisconsin, see Stewart v. City of Ripon, 38 Wis. 584, 590-91 (1875). In Vosburg, one school boy kicked another in the shin, in circumstances that made the kicking a battery. The kick would not have seriously injured a normal person, but the victim had an infection in his tibia and the kick aggravated the infection, causing serious injury. The court held the defendant liable for the entire damages. Stoleson v. United States, 708 F.2d 1217, 1221 (7th Cir. 1983).
Even if you have a preexisting condition, you have the right to compensation if that condition is aggravated or made worse by the accident. If you have been injured in a car accident, contact The McAllen Personal Injury Lawyer today for a free consultation at 956-501-6565.
