The words res ipsa loquitur express the legal maxim that the ‘thing speaks for itself’. For example, when a docks official was passing by a sugar warehouse and was hit and injured by six bags of sugar, he was entitled in the absence of any other evidence to assert that the facts spoke for themselves in establishing the defendant warehouse owner’s breach of duty (Scott v London and St Katherine Docks Co., 1865). In that case, Chief Justice Erle set out the following parameters of the legal maxim:
■ The ‘thing’ (e.g. the bags of sugar) has to be shown to be under the management of the defendant.
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