Case Law - Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932)

Case: Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932)
Precedent: Duty of Care (Neighbour Principle)

A friend of the claimant purchased a bottle of ginger beer. The claimant drank some of the beer in which was found the remains of a decomposed snail. She was subsequently ill and sued the manufacturer. She was unable to sue the manufacturer for breach of contract because the only contract that existed was with the claimant’s friend who had bought the ginger beer and the manufacturer.

The House of Lords held that the defendant being the manufacturer of the ginger beer owed a duty of care to the claimant as the consumer of the beer to take reasonable care to ensure that the bottle did not contain anything that might cause harm.

In this case the judge said that reasonable care must be taken to avoid acts or omissions which, with reasonable foresight, you would know would be likely to injure your neighbour. This is known as the “Neighbour Principle”. Therefore the test whether someone is a “neighbour”, in the legal sense, can be established if it can be reasonably foreseen that the act or omission may cause harm to them.

NEBOSH NGC Pass Rates

Official pass rates for the National General Certificate:

                        NGC1 NGC2 NGC3
Jan-Mar 08       73%   85%   96%
Apr-Jun 08       79%   80%   95%
Jul-Sep 08        74%   83%   94%
Oct-Dec 08       71%   84%   95%
Jan-Mar 09      78%   88%   94%
Apr-Jun 09       69%   80%   95%


Pass rates based on UK Standard and 'Local' examination sitting dates