Here is an example of how you can utilize Laravel 4.3 FormRequest to force a unique rule to ignore a given ID

UpdateUserRequest.php

<?php namespace App\Http\Requests;

use Auth;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

class UpdateUserRequest extends FormRequest {

  /**
  * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
  *
  * @return array
  */
  public function rules()
  {
    /*
     * Route::resource('users', 'UsersController');
     *  PUT users/{users}
     *  PATCH users/{users}
     *
     * http://laravel43.dev:8000/users/2
     *
     * Here are a couple of ways to obtain the
     * identifying value from the URI.
     *
     * Method #1:
     * $this->route->parameter('users')
     *
     * Method #2:
     * $this->segment(2)
     *
     */
     $id = $this->route->parameter('users');
    
     return [
       'email' => "required|unique:users,email,$id"
     ];
  }
  
  /**
   * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
   *
   * @return bool
   */
   public function authorize()
   {
    return Auth::id() == $this->route->parameter('users');
   }

}