BBC: * The slug that changed the world *

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 08:31:03 -0500
> From: Bob Rosenberg <bob () bobrosenberg phoenix az us>
> Subject: BBC: * The slug that changed the world *
> To: dave () farber net
>
>
> Dave
>
> For IP.
>
> A startling juxtaposition!
>
> I was quite surprised to go from the item on IP, "What Is Happening in
> America? DO NOT READ IF THESE VIEWS ANNOY YOU", about George Bush's
> continued dismantling of democracy in America, to this item, from BBC,
> regarding the origins of modern Tort law.
>
> Bob
>
> **********
>
> * The slug that changed the world *
> A dead slug served up in a Paisley cafe 75 years ago has had a lasting
> impact on legal systems worldwide.
> Full story:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/scotland/3001512.stm
>
>
> The slug that changed the world
>
> by Stephanie Todd
> BBC News Online Scotland
>
>
> The 26th of August marks the 75th anniversary of an incident which led
> to one of the most bizarre yet influential cases in legal history.
>
> Mrs Donoghue met a friend at Frankie Minghella's "Tally cafe"
> A dead slug found at the bottom of a drink in a Paisley café went on to
> shape the legal rights of consumers not just in Scotland but all around
> the world.
>
> The case began when shop assistant May Donoghue and a friend met for an
> ice-cream on a Saturday evening at Frankie Minghella's "Tally café" in
> Wellmeadow Place.
>
> The friend ordered a "pear and ice" for herself and paid for a ginger
> beer float for Mrs Donoghue.
>
> After consuming most of her treat Mrs Donoghue was horrified to
> discover a partially decomposed slug as she poured out the remains of
> her drink from its brown frosted bottle.
>
> She suffered from shock and later had to be treated for gastro-
> enteritis and later decided to take action against the café owner.
>
>   For all it is a bizarre story, it had a huge effect on the law
> worldwide
>
> Ellen Farmer
> Paisley historian
> But Mr Minghella insisted that as Mrs Donoghue had not bought the drink
> herself, he did not owe her a "duty of care" therefore she had no
> grounds on which to base her complaint.
>
> His only legal responsibility lay in providing that duty of care to the
> actual purchaser, not the consumer.
>
> In a move without legal precedent, Mrs Donoghue decided to sue the
> manufacturer of the ginger beer, Paisley soft drink maker David
> Stevenson.
>
> The case lasted four years as her lawyer William Leechman claimed that
> the slug must have crawled into where the bottles were being stored
> before being filled.
>
> His argument centred on the fact that Stevenson had a "duty of care" to
> those consuming his product, even without a direct contract.
>
> The case went all the way to the House of Lords, the highest court in
> the land, before Mrs Donoghue finally won her battle in 1932.
>
>
> The site of the cafe is now marked with a commemorative plaque
> Lord Atkin, who ruled in the shop worker's favour, summed up the
> crucial question in the case as "the rule that you are to love your
> neighbour becomes, in, law you must not injure your neighbour.
>
> "You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can
> reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour."
>
> He defined a neighbour as "persons 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 which
> are called in question".
>
> Mrs Donoghue was awarded £200 in compensation - the equivalent of
> £7,400 today.
>
> 'Gie's a slug'
>
> Perhaps more importantly, the principle of her win was established as a
> legal case study and has since been applied in every court action where
> a person suffers injury or loss.
>
> In Scotland it is known as delict - the law of negligence and
> liability. In North America it is known as tort.
>
> Millions of damages actions around the world now regularly begin with
> Lord Atkin's ruling in the Paisley slug case and its 75th anniversary
> this August is a landmark cherished by lawyers far and wide.
>
>
> The slug was said to have crawled in the bottle before it was filled
> The case also had a knock-on effect on the local vernacular in the west
> of Scotland.
>
> To this day, the expression "Gie's a slug (drink) ae yer ginger
> (lemonade)" can still be heard.
>
> Paisley historian Ellen Farmer said the café building in Wellmeadow
> Place had been demolished in the 1960s but that that its legacy would
> remain forever enshrined in the law.
>
> She said: "Before Mrs Donoghue brought her action, there was no real
> law to protect consumers. You weren't really able to sue anyone for
> anything.
>
> "For all it is a bizarre story, it had a huge effect on the law
> worldwide. Manufacturers are now held much more accountable for the
> products they make.
>
> "Few people outside the legal profession realise however that it all
> started because of one Paisley lady with a slug in her ice cream
> float."
>
>
> --
>
> Bob Rosenberg
>
> "Be kind to those on earth, and He who is in heaven will send you His
> blessings." - Prophet Mohammed
>
> Helping Build the Tech Oasis - http://www.techoasis.org
>
> "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" - "Who watches the watchmen?"
>                          Juvenal, Satires, vi. 347
>
> \\\"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed
> us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their
> use.\\\"
> - Galileo Galilei
>
> *****************

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