The Supreme Court on April 23 restored the compensation of Rs 5 lakhs awarded by the district consumer forum in a medical negligence case. The apex court underlined that the state and central consumer courts incorrectly applied the ‘eggshell skull’ legal principle.
Key points
- The eggshell skull rule is a common law principle applied in civil litigation.
- When the offender would be liable for all injuries that might be intensified due to the peculiar conditions of the injured person that the offender might not have known. What it means that the defendant would be held responsible for injuries caused to a person when he hit him on the head, even if the victim had a particularly delicate skull or an ‘eggshell’ for a skull.
- The rule is applied for claiming an enhanced compensation — for damage that is more than what could have been ordinarily anticipated to be caused by the defendant.
- The origins of the eggshell skull rule are most often traced back to an 1891 Vosburg v. Putney case in Wisconsin, US.
