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Chapter 3

Duty of care

There is a duty to take reasonable care not to cause foreseeable harm to others.

The 'neighbour principle’

The case of Donoghue v Stevenson (below) was the first to establish that a duty of
care may be owed to a person, even where no contractual relationship exists.

Prior to this case, the belief was that to allow an action to be taken where there was
no contractual relationship would undermine the principles of contract law. The
doctrine of privity states that only parties to a contract can sue or be sued.

Donoghue v Stevenson changed this principle and, as a result, manufacturers of
goods owe a duty of care to the ultimate consumer of the product.

Illustration 1 – Negligence

DONOGHUE v STEVENSON 1932

Facts:

A bottle of ginger beer was purchased in a café. Donoghue drank part of it then
discovered the remains of a decomposing snail in it. As a result she became
severely ill. The manufacturer claimed that as there was no contractual
relationship between himself and the claimant he did not owe her a duty of care.

Held:

Everyone owes a duty of care to their ‘neighbour’, to ‘persons so closely and
directly affected by my act that I ought to have reasonably have had them in
contemplation as being so affected.’ Thus a manufacturer owes a duty of care to
a consumer of their product.

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