Transcript

NARRATOR:

In August of 1928, May Donoghue and a friend decided to visit the Wellmeadow Cafe in Paisley for a pear and ice, and in the case of May Donoghue, an ice cream and a bottle of ginger beer.

WAITER:

Table for two, yes?

NARRATOR:

Everything was paid for by May Donoghue's friend.

WAITER:

Ladies, what would you like?

WOMAN:

Can I have--

NARRATOR:

Now, the act of buying a bottle of ginger beer for a friend would not be unusual now, and it wasn't then. It was a transaction that occurred hundreds of times each day in countless cafes across the country.

WAITER:

And an ice cream for you.

NARRATOR:

But when her friend bought May Donoghue that bottle of ginger beer, the transaction and its aftermath formed the basis of one of the most celebrated and important Scottish cases in world legal history.

WOMAN:

Thank you. Thank you.

NARRATOR:

For in her Stevenson manufactured bottle of ginger beer, May Donoghue didn't just get ginger beer. She discovered something else as well.

JOHN CAIRNS:

It's got, you know, Paisley, a cafe, a friend, ice cream, ginger beer, and this decomposed snail. It's just kind of perfect.

NARRATOR:

The decisions of courts in cases such as Donoghue against Stevenson are hugely important and have a significant impact on the development of the law, and as such, need to be recorded.