## Facts

- A semi-tractor trailer rear-ended a van in which Loras J. Benn was a passenger on an icy Missouri road.
- Benn suffered a bruised chest and fractured ankle.
- Six days after the collision, Benn died from a heart attack.
- Benn had serious preexisting conditions, including coronary disease and insulin-dependent diabetes, and had suffered a prior heart attack.
- The estate’s medical expert testified the collision and resulting bodily stress triggered the fatal heart attack (“the straw that broke the camel’s back”).
- Other medical evidence disputed any causal link between the collision and Benn’s death.
- The estate requested a jury instruction stating that a tortfeasor takes the plaintiff as found (eggshell plaintiff), including liability for harm greater than an ordinary person would suffer.
- The trial court refused the requested eggshell-plaintiff instruction.
- The jury found defendants negligent and awarded $17,000 for pre-death injuries but found no proximate cause as to death and awarded nothing for wrongful death.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court committed reversible error by refusing to instruct the jury on the eggshell-plaintiff rule where evidence supported that the collision precipitated a fatal heart attack in a medically fragile plaintiff.
2. Whether the eggshell-plaintiff rule bears on proximate cause (scope of liability) rather than only on damages.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Iowa affirmed the court of appeals, reversed the district court, and remanded for a new trial.
- The court held the trial court erred in refusing the eggshell-plaintiff instruction.
- The court rejected the argument that the eggshell rule concerns only damages, holding it also informs the jury’s proximate-cause determination.
- Given conflicting causation evidence and a verdict denying death damages, the omission was prejudicial and not harmless.

## Legal Principles

- A tortfeasor must take the injured person as found; when negligence combines with or worsens a preexisting condition, the tortfeasor is liable for the full extent of injury caused.
- Liability is not reduced because the plaintiff’s unusual susceptibility produced greater harm than would occur to an ordinary person, even if the extent of harm was not foreseeable.
- When supported by the evidence, an eggshell-plaintiff instruction is required to prevent jurors from improperly denying causation or liability based on the plaintiff’s prior frailty.

## Conclusion

Because evidence permitted a finding that the collision precipitated a fatal heart attack in a plaintiff with serious preexisting disease, the jury needed an eggshell-plaintiff instruction to properly evaluate proximate cause and resulting damages; its omission required a new trial.


Benn v. Thomas, 512 N.W.2d 537 (Iowa 1994)