Donoghue v Stevenson
A manufacturer owes a duty of care to the ultimate consumer of its products, and the neighbour principle is the foundation of the modern law of negligence.
Facts
Mrs Donoghue went with a friend to a café in Paisley, where the friend bought her a bottle of ginger beer. The bottle was made of dark opaque glass, so its contents could not be seen. After she had drunk some of it, her friend poured the rest into her glass, and the decomposed remains of a snail floated out. Mrs Donoghue claimed that she suffered shock and gastroenteritis. She could not sue the café owner in contract, because she had not bought the drink, so she sued the manufacturer, Mr Stevenson, in negligence.
Legal principle
The House of Lords held, by a majority of three to two, that the manufacturer owed her a duty of care. Lord Atkin said that you must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour, and that your neighbours are persons who are so closely and directly affected by your act that you ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected. A manufacturer of products, which he sells in such a form as to show that he intends them to reach the ultimate consumer in the form in which they left him, with no reasonable possibility of intermediate examination, owes a duty to the consumer to take reasonable care. The case was decided on a preliminary point, and the facts were never proved at trial.
Related cases on duty of care
- Anns v Merton London Borough Council [1978] AC 728
- Caparo Industries plc v Dickman [1990] 2 AC 605
- Capital & Counties plc v Hampshire County Council [1997] QB 1004
- Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust [2018] UKSC 50, [2019] AC 831
- Gorringe v Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council [2004] UKHL 15, [2004] 1 WLR 1057
- Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [1989] AC 53
- Home Office v Dorset Yacht Co Ltd [1970] AC 1004
- Kent v Griffiths [2001] QB 36
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