Thompson's predicament elicits empathy and a focus on duty of care

On the evening of August 26, 1928, May Donoghue took a tram ride from her tenement home in Glasgow to meet a friend at the Wellmeadow Café in Paisley. Her friend bought her a bottle of ginger beer and, as she enjoyed the drink, the remnants of a decomposing snail emerged from the opaque bottle. It's recorded that May Donoghue suffered shock and severe gastroenteritis. As she had not bought the drink, she had no legal contract with the café owner. This became known as The Paisley Snail case. It is forever etched in legal history as the judgment of Lord Atkin established that a manufacturer owed…