The best and brightest among us would be hard pressed to remember the details of every landmark case we needed to study in law school. However, whether it was due to their gravity or absurdity, there exist a rare few cases that stayed with us. These are the cases of the snail in the ginger beer, the ill-fated cabin boy and the daring advertiser’s wager. We all remember the colourful characters well but know little of their fate following the verdict.
For this reason, the team at Insights has compiled fresh and compelling evidence to give new life to our favourite peculiar precedents.
1. Donoghue v Stevenson
Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) is perhaps one of the most memorable cases of our legal careers. After all, who can forget the snail that launched a thousand personal injury claims? May Donoghue and the dead snail she found bathing in her ginger beer kicked off our education on tort law as well as the more bizarre origins of our common law.
May Donoghue was awarded £200 at the close of the landmark case – but perhaps the real reward went to the quiet little Scottish town of Paisley where the story began. Since the case, Paisley has become a sacred site for legal pilgrims and tourists alike. Visitors can venture down to Wellmeadow Place, the site of the café Mrs. Donoghue had visited that fateful day, where a plaque has been erected in honour of the events. The café is long gone, though, and so too Mr Stevenson, who passed away only a year after the case was closed. Paisley now regularly hosts international legal conferences on the law of tort.
2. Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball
Among other things, Carlill’s case taught us that contracts are seldom a simple combination of Offer, Acceptance, and Consideration. The case occurred during a flu season over a century ago when the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company offered a £100 reward to any buyer who wasn’t cured by the Smoke Ball. When Mrs. Carlill wasn’t miraculously cured, the Company was told in no uncertain terms by the Queens’ Bench to pay up.
It seems, however, that Mr. Roe of the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company learned his lesson. Shortly after the case was closed, Mr. Roe opened up a new company and started advertising again but this time with more restrictive conditions. Punters now had to complete the challenge and claim their reward within three months. And as for Mrs. Carlill, she lived a quiet life until the age of 96 when she died – as fate would have it – of influenza.
3. R v Dudley and Stephens
The tale of the ill-fated cabin boy of the Mignonette was certainly one that had our full attention during an otherwise routine class on legal ethics. When Dudley and Stephens were shipwrecked along with two others, the pair decided to survive on the flesh of the comatose cabin boy. On their return to England, they were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Thus it was written in common law that necessity was no defence to murder.
However, it wasn’t the fate of Dudley or Stephens to be hanged. Following the verdict, Home Secretary Harcourt commuted the sentence for the two men. Based on the notion that the jury would have convicted the pair of manslaughter were they not withheld from doing so, Harcourt commuted the sentence to six months after which they were released. Stephens settled down to a life on the land while Dudley emigrated to Sydney and took up a life as a small business owner and opium addict.