“House of Lords establishes neighbour principle and modern negligence law”
The House of Lords held (3:2) that a manufacturer does owe a duty of care to the ultimate consumer, even without a contractual relationship, provided the product reaches the consumer in the same state as it left the manufacturer.
Mrs Donoghue consumed ginger beer from an opaque bottle purchased by her friend from a café in Paisley. She allegedly found the remains of a decomposed snail in the bottle and became ill. Since she had not purchased the product herself, she had no contractual relationship with the manufacturer or retailer.
Whether a manufacturer owes a duty of care to the ultimate consumer of their product where there is no contractual relationship between them.
Lord Atkin established the 'neighbour principle' - that you must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour. A neighbour is anyone so closely and directly affected by your act that you ought reasonably to have them in contemplation when directing your mind to the acts in question.
This case established the modern tort of negligence and the fundamental 'neighbour principle' that governs duty of care. It remains the foundation of negligence law in the UK and most common law jurisdictions.
A manufacturer owes a duty of care to the ultimate consumer of their products to avoid acts or omissions that could reasonably foreseeably cause harm, even without contractual relationship.
The House of Lords established that Mrs Donoghue could sue the manufacturer in negligence despite having no contract with them, creating modern negligence law.
It created the foundation of modern negligence law and the neighbour principle, establishing that duties of care exist independently of contract where harm is reasonably foreseeable.
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Try the free SQE1 diagnosticLord Atkin's broader formulation of the neighbour principle went beyond what was necessary to decide the case, providing a general test for duty of care in negligence that would apply across various situations.
OSCOLA Citation
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL)
Read the judgment for Donoghue v Stevenson as published by The National Archives (Find Case Law).
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[2026] EWHC 1095 (KB)
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