How a common snail changed the course of legal history
2 May 2018
Back in August 1928, May Donaghue met up with a friend at the Wellmeadow Café in Paisley to enjoy a ginger beer float.
However, as she topped up her glass a little later that evening, her enjoyment turned to revulsion as out from the beer bottle slithered the decomposing remains... of a snail.
The Paisley Snail
Hear how a snail in a ginger beer bottle kicked off this famous case.
May, a shop assistant, fell ill and was unable to go to work. However, she was unable claim for compensation as her friend had paid for the drink.
In the eyes of the law, any legal relationship was between the café owner and May’s friend — not May herself.
Undeterred, she pursued her legal options over the following years.
Artist Mandy McIntosh is fascinated by the case and explained on Denise Mina’s Case Histories that May didn’t have an easy time.
“She was ridiculed in public; people laughed at her. A lot of people accused her of pursuing the case just for the money.”
Judgement in the Lords
The case of Donoghue v Stevenson (the café owner) eventually reached the House of Lords where Lord Atkin of Aberdovey found in May’s favour.
His judgement, which he based on the tale of the Good Samaritan, stated, “You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour”.
This judgement had a seismic impact and became the basis for the modern law of negligence.
May Donaghue eventually settled for a sum of £200 almost five years after her gruesome encounter with the common snail that would change the law.
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Some remarkable events that have helped shape the law as it stands today.
The programme in full
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Denise Mina鈥檚 Case Histories
Denise takes a look at the trials where ordinary people fought the law and the law didn鈥檛 win.
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