How a SNAIL in a Drink Would Change the World

<p>In 1928, May Donoghue was drinking ginger beer at a café in Paisley when a friend poured the last of an opaque bottle into her glass. Out came the decomposed remains of a snail, something she could not have seen before drinking from it. She later became ill and sued the drink’s manufacturer, David Stevenson.</p><p>The problem was that May had not bought the drink herself, so she had no contract with the manufacturer. But in 1932, the House of Lords ruled that a maker of products owes consumers a duty to take reasonable care, even without a direct contract.</p><p>That decision, <em>Donoghue v Stevenson</em>, created the modern “duty of care” principle at the heart of negligence law. One alleged snail in one bottle of ginger beer changed consumer protection and personal-injury law around the world, although whether the snail was ever actually there was never proved in court.</p>