Blog Post Article: #NeighbourPrinciple: Would you like a snail with that drink?

Blog: The Trendy Lawyer

Anybody interested in a legal career is going to have to hear about the infamous “snail-in-the-drink” case, known officially as Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562. This is the case that expanded tort law and introduced the ‘neighbour principle’ – the duty to take care to not harm your neighbours. Tort law covers cases where someone’s wrongdoing has caused loss to another and a contract is not required for parties making a tort law claim.

The Donoghue v Stevenson case

Let me set the scene with the facts of the case that changed the face of tort law. Mrs Donoghue was with her friend in a cafe, sipping on some ginger beer that her friend had just bought her. All was going well until she began to feel ill before even finishing the drink. Why? I hear you ask. Well, this was because there was a dead snail in it!

As Mrs. Donoghue did not buy the drink herself, she could not sue for breach of contract (see how important facts are in law, down to the penny spending), so instead she brought forward a negligence claim. She claimed the manufacturers had a duty of care to make the bottles in a clean place that would not allow snails to get in.

In the case, Lord Atkin declared a significant statement saying, that we have a duty towards “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 that are called in question”. So #TakeCare.

And so the ‘neighbour principle’ was born and set for case law moving forward. So could an innocent act you’re doing, such as mopping a floor at work, impact a passer-by?...