NEGLIGENCE & DUTY OF CARE - The leading case in Negligence is the case of Donoghue v Stevenson (1932)

The first 200 words of this essay...

The leading case in Negligence is the case of Donoghue v Stevenson (1932)

This case explains that, Mrs Donoghue and her friend went to a cafe in Paisley. At the cafe, Mrs Donoghues' friend bought her a drink which was a ginger beer float consisting of ginger beer that was in an opaque bottle. After Mrs Donoghue drank out of the drink in a beer cup, her friend topped up the drink, and then they found in the ginger beer bottle a decomposed remains of a snail. Mrs Donoghue claimed that the memories of seeing the snail in the ginger beer she had already drunk made her ill.

Mrs Donoghue could not sue the retailer of the ginger beer for breach of contract because she was not the one that bought the beer herself this is because the contract had been made between the retailer and her friend. She therefore sued against the manufacturer in tort as it was not worth suing the retailer who had only sold the drink to them.

The neighbour test

This was brought about by Lord Atkins in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson (1932).

Lord Atkins stated that there