Business Law: Donoghue v Stevenson

Running head: BUSINESS LAW
Business Law
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1BUSINESS LAW
Name of the Case
Donoghue v Stevenson
Citation
[1932] UKHL 100
Source
1. Evans-Jones, R. and Scott, H., 2018. Lord Atkin, Donoghue v Stevenson and the Lex
Aquilia: Civilian Roots of the “Neighbour” Principle. In Wrongful Damage to
Property in Roman Law: British Perspectives. Edinburgh University Press.
2. Hage, J., 2017. Legal reasoning. In Introduction to law (pp. 21-31). Springer, Cham.
Name of the Court
First Stage:
Interlocutory action initiated by Donoghue against Stevenson in the Court of Session,
Outer House declaring an award against Stevenson.
Second Stage:
Appeal against the decision of the Court of Session, Outer House preferred by Stevenson
before the Court of Sessions, Inner House, which allowed the appeal.
Third Stage:
Petition filed by Donoghue challenging the appeal allowed by the Court of Sessions, Inner
House to the House of Lords, granting the petition and return the case to the Court of
Session.

2BUSINESS LAW
Name of the Judges
First Stage:
In the Outer House of the Court of Session, the interlocutory action filed by Donoghue has
been conducted by Lord Moncrieff.
Second Stage:
In the Court of Session, Inner House, the appeal has been conducted by Lord Hunter,
Lord Hunter, Lord Alness (Lord Justice Clerk) and Lord Ormidale.
Third Stage:
In the House of Lords, the petition has been conducted by Lord Atkin, Lord
Buckmaster, Lord Tomlin and Lord Macmillan.
Summary of Fact
In the Wellmeadow Café, in Paisley, Mrs. Donoghue has been served with a Scotsman ice
cream float, which implies a mixture of ginger beer and ice cream that had been ordered by
her friend who was accompanying her in the Café, on the evening of 26th of August 1928.
The ginger beer bottle has been labelled to have manufactured by Stevenson. After the
consumption of a certain amount of the ginger beer, Donoghue discovered that the bottle of
the ginger beer contained some decomposed remains of a dead snail. The bottle of ginger
beer was opaque owing to which the snail was not visible from the outside. Consequently,
Donoghue has felt an abdominal pain and fell sick from the sight of the dead snail.
Afterwards, her health further deteriorated leading her to visit a doctor. She was also required
to avail the emergency treatment and to that effect got admitted in the Glasgow Royal
Infirmary. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with shock and acute gastroenteritis.