Rylands v Fletcher Flashcards
What is Rylands v Fletcher?
Where a persons property is damaged or destroyed by the escape of a non-naturally stored material onto adjoining property
What did Lord Cairns add in the appeal of Rylands v Fletcher in the House of Lords?
‘The thing brought onto the land must be unnatural use with consequences at the defendant’s peril’
True or false: was Rylands v Fletcher previously a tort of strict liability?
True
What are the elements needed for a successful Rylands v Fletcher claim?
- Bringing of the thing onto land and the storage of it
- Likely to cause mischief if it escapes
- Non-natural use of land
- Escapes and causes reasonably foreseeable damage to adjoining
What is the Viscount Simon’s Test in Read v Lyons?
The defendant will either be the owner of the land affected or the occupier.
They must have some control over the land to claim.
What is established in Giles v Walker?
If the thing is already on the land, there will be no liability
What is established in Ellison v Ministry of Defence?
There cannot be liability for a thing that naturally accumulates
What can mischief be caused by under Rylands v Fletcher?
- Gas and electricity
- Poisonous flames
- Flag pole
- Tree branches
What is established in Transco v Stockport BC?
It is not now possible to claim personal injury
What did Lord Moulton state in Richards v Lothian regarding non-natural use of land?
‘Special use bringing with it increased danger’
What accounts to a natural use of land?
- fire in a grate which spread to neighbouring land
- Defective electric wiring causing a fire and spreading
- A domestic water supply (Richards v Lothian)
What was established in Cambridge Water Co. v Eastern Counties Leather? (2 points of law)
Local employment importance doesn’t make the use of land anymore unnatural.
Damage to adjoining property must be reasonably foreseeable.
What was established in Read v J Lyons and Co. Ltd?
Item must escape from one property to another
What was Ward LJ’s judgement in Standard v Gore?
Damage caused by fire escaping onto adjoining property can fall under Rylands v Fletcher if the thing escapes and not the fire
What are the defences for Rylands v Fletcher?
- Volenti non fit injuria
- Act of a stranger
- Act of god
- Statutory authority
- Contributory negligence
