Donoghue v Stevenson (was Stone Bottle)


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Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on January 26, 2003 at -1:01:25 from 195.93.49.13 user ACB.

In Reply to: Re: Stone Bottle posted by Peter H on January 25, 2003 at 20:22:21:

The most celebrated legal judgement of the last century - Lord Reid's in the above case (which was given when it was taken to the House of Lords on the preliminary point of whether or not the maker of the ginger beer might be liable in tort, since Mrs Donoghue was in contract with the owner of the shop not the maker of the ginger beer) turns entirely on the purchase by Mrs Donoghue of a stone bottle of ginger beer. She uncorked it, drank some of it, then poured out the rest which, according to her evidence, contained the remains of a partly decomposed snail. This made her ill and she sued.

Had the bottle been a glass one, she would have seen the snail immediately.

The case is contemporaneous with the writing of Swallows and Amazons.

(collectors of legal trivia may care to note that, Lord Reid's epoch-making judgement on the Duty of Care having been given, the case was returned to the court of first instance which found as a fact that there was no snail and dismissed the action.)


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