How A Snail In A Bottle Changed English Law

One of the most important concepts for a shop solicitor to consider when helping clients is in terms of liability. 

 

This can take a range of forms, from the professional liability that is commonly associated with bad advice, to personal injury liability when someone is hurt as a result of a product or service provided to the customer. 

 

Much of the legal basis for this was the result of a snail in a bottle at the centre of the 1932 case of Donoghue v Stevenson. 

 

The “Paisley Snail” case revolves around Mrs Donoghue, who when in a cafe in Paisley asked for a Scotsman float, which used D. Stevenson ginger beer poured over a tumbler of ice cream. 

 

However, when pouring the rest of the ginger beer in, a decomposing snail floated out of the bottle, and Mrs Donoghue reported feeling ill, later being hospitalised for shock and severe gastroenteritis. 

 

She sued David Stevenson on behalf of his company for the injury, but there was a complication in this case. The law at the time typically only allowed injury claims on the bases of a breach of the contract of sale between seller and customer. 

 

As Mrs Donoghue had not purchased the drink herself, her friend who had bought the drink did not have any injury, and neither had a direct contract of sale with Mr Stevenson as they had bought the drink from a cafe, she needed to claim damages for negligence instead of injury. 

 

The case would ultimately go to the House of Lords, who held that there was a close enough relationship between manufacturers and consumers for a duty of care to be established, and this car was breached because it could reasonably be foreseen that not ensuring a drinkable product’s safety would harm customers. 

 

The case was ultimately settled out of court due to Mr Stevenson’s death at the age of 69, but the case has set a vital precedent between manufacturers and customers that is still cited to this day.