TASTING RISKS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 50, 28 August 1934, Page 10

TASTING RISKS

GINGER BEER AND A SNAIL

Referring, incidentally, to the risks arising-from the senses of..hearing .and tasting, Mr. W. E. Leicester, in an address to tho New Zealand Insurance Institute, mentioned a case which finally went to the House of Lords for decision, and which was, he said, oue of the. most important cases of recent years. It was. a risk in the sense of tasting that led to the case, namely, that of McAlister v. Stevenson, and with his reference to it Mr. Leicester concluded his address.

"All that happened was that the appellant purchased a. bottle of ginger beer in a restaurant, at Paisley," said Mr. Leicester. "The bottle was made of dark opaque glass aud the lady had no reason to suspect that it contained anything but pure ginger beer. Imagine her snrpriso and disgust when, after consuming some of it, she poured out the remainder and there floated out of the bottle a snail in a very advanced state of decomposition. From these slight facts five members of the House of Lords sat down and wrote judgments extending over sixty pages of the reports.

"With this testimony to the administration of justice in general and to the snail family in particular for the part that it played in this important case, I must conclude my address. . . ."