On Sunday 26th August 1928, May Donoghue sat in a caf with a friend. The friend ordered

On Sunday 26th August 1928, May Donoghue sat in a café with a friend. The friend ordered and paid for some ginger beer, which came in a bottle made from dark opaque glass. Donoghue drank some of the contents then her friend proceeded to pour the remainder of the contents of the bottle into the tumbler when a snail, which was beginning to rot, floated out of the bottle.

Mrs. Donoghue claimed that she was made ill both by what she had seen and by what she feared she had eaten: namely, the rotting carcass of a presumed gastropod. She later fell ill and a physician diagnosed her with gastroenteritis. She commenced a claim against the manufacturer of the ginger beer. The court denied her claim on the grounds that the manufacturer did not owe her a duty of care. The court found that a duty of care was limited to specific circumstances such as a contractual relationship between parties or where the manufacturer was making an inherently dangerous product or acting fraudulently. This decision was appealed and the case went all the way to the House of Lords where they ruled in favour for Donoghue. It was the speech of Lord Atkins that was most influential. He said :
``You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour. Who, then, in law is my neighbour? The answer seems to be - persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question.''
And so, for Donoghue, it was determined that a manufacturer of products such as ginger beer, which was intended to reach consumer, owes a duty of care to anyone who may consume it.

This `neighbour principle' was, and to a certain extent still is, the foundation of the modern law

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Facts In the case of Donoghue v Stevenson May Donoghue went to a caf with her friend Her friend orde... View the full answer