**Clearly a soccer player. The cop barely touched him.**
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggshell_skull
This rule holds that a tortfeasor is liable for all consequences resulting from their tortious (usually negligent) activities leading to an injury to another person, even if the victim suffers an unusually high level of damage (e.g. due to a pre-existing vulnerability or medical condition).....
Of course, you have to be a “tortfeasor” for the liability to attach under the “eggshell skull victim” doctrine. A police officer in a line of officers marching together toward a domestic violence or riotous situation is not automatically considered a “tortfeasor,” even in this situation. Arguably the aggressor and person who made the initial contact is the old guy himself. That would make him the tortfeasor.
There are lots of issues here. The episode will turn on whether that slight push, not extremely strong for an able-bodied person, was beyond the scope of what was necessary in the mind of the officer who pushed him, given what the officer could possibly have known at the time.
There are enough issues here for a law school exam.
Dumbass was standing between the cops and a riot. Might as well have been playing in traffic. Watch him go backward after a light touch to get him out of the wat - a World Cup class set up.
Negligence
Definition
A failure to behave with the level of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised under the same circumstances. The behavior usually consists of actions, but can also consist of omissions when there is some duty to act (e.g., a duty to help victims of one’s previous conduct).
Overview
Primary factors to consider in ascertaining whether the person’s conduct lacks reasonable care are the foreseeable likelihood that the person’s conduct will result in harm, the foreseeable severity of any harm that may ensue, and the burden of precautions to eliminate or reduce the risk of harm. See Restatement (Third) of Torts: Liability for Physical Harm § 3 (P.F.D. No. 1, 2005). Negligent conduct may consist of either an act, or an omission to act when there is a duty to do so. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 282 (1965).
Four elements are required to establish a prima facie case of negligence:
the existence of a legal duty that the defendant owed to the plaintiff
defendant’s breach of that duty
plaintiff’s sufferance of an injury
proof that defendant’s breach caused the injury (typically defined through proximate cause)
Determining a Breach
When determining how whether the defendant has breached a duty, courts will usually use the Hand Formula (created by Judge Learned Hand in United States v. Carroll Towing):
If B < PL, then there will be negligence liability for the party with the burden of taking precautions
B=burden of taking precautions
P=probability of loss
L=gravity of loss (gravity of the personal loss, not social loss)
If the burden of taking such precautions is less than the probability of injury multiplied by the gravity of any resulting injury, then the party with the burden of taking precautions will have some amount of liability