3 Legal reasoning and Donoghue

In Donoghue the neighbour principle was used to establish a duty of care even where there was no contractual relationship between the parties. In subsequent cases, the scope of the neighbour principle has vexed many a judge. This is partly due to two factors:

• the different ways in which the majority judgments in the case expressed the neighbour principle
• the range of factual circumstances in cases which subsequently tried to apply the neighbour principle.

To explore the legal reasoning used in Donoghue you will now examine aspects of the pleadings and judgments.

Figure 6 Who is your neighbour?