TAVISTOCK Subscription Library has a starring role in a new film created by Time-Lock Productions for the University of Plymouth.
The 200-year-old library was transformed into a solicitors’ office as part of the shooting of the film The Strange Case of the Snail in a Bottle – which follows a landmark legal case Donoghue v Stevenson.
Plymouth University spokesman Andrew Merrington said that law experts at the university are creating the first-ever dramatisation of some of the most foundational cases in the country’s legal system.
‘The Strange Case of the Snail in a Bottle is the second of the series of films entitled The Justice Files, each focusing on cases that have become enshrined in the law of more than 60 countries,’ he said.
‘More than 300,000 law students study these cases every year and the first film will be made freely available to schools, colleges and universities to assist with learning.’
The scene filmed in the library is part of a case involving the discovery of a partly decomposed snail in a ginger beer bottle being consumed in a cafe in Paisley, Scotland, by May Donoghue around 100 years ago.
The case went all the way to the House of Lords before Mrs Donoghue finally won her legal battle for damages in 1932. Mrs Donoghue was awarded £200 in compensation, the equivalent of £7,400 today.
Her win was established as a legal case study and has been used in every court action where a person suffers injury or loss. Millions of damages actions around the world now regularly begin with the ruling in the Paisley snail case.
The film is scheduled to premiere in early November at the university’s Jill Craigie Cinema.
Rob Giles, founder of Time-Lock Productions, said that the subscription library provided the perfect location for the office of William Leechman, the solicitor who took up the case for Mrs Donoghue.
‘We would like to express our thanks for accommodating us on the day and generously allowing us to adjust the furniture and utilise some of the books to help create such a wonderful set,’ he said.