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 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."
