The key to this case is an advertisement that appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette in November 1891. This advertisement was for the defendant’s medical preparation, the ‘Carbolic Smoke Ball’. It stated that a reward of £100 ‘will be paid by the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company to any person who contracts the increasing epidemic influenza, colds, or any disease caused by taking cold, after having used the ball three times daily for 2 weeks according to the printed directions supplied with each ball’. A sum of £1,000 had been deposited with a bank, to show ‘[the defendant’s] sincerity in the matter’.
The claimant, Mrs Louisa Carlill, saw the advertisement and acted on it. She used the smoke ball, as directed, for about 2 months but was struck by influenza. She fell into dispute with the company when she tried to claim the £100 reward. Her lawsuit reached the Court of Appeal, where three judges — Lords Justices Lindley, Bowen and A. L. Smith — came to a decision that is now regarded as a landmark of the common law.
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