Rylands v Fletcher Flashcards
What is Rylands v Fletcher
It is its own type of nuisance and is a strict liability crime so no MR required due to it being presumed
Explain the first requirement of R v F
Accumulation - D must bring hazardous material onto the land and keep it there
If it was already there or naturally occurred there is no liability under R v F
Explain the second requirement of R v F
Must be likely to cause a nuisance if it escapes - the thing need not to be inherently dangerous but likely to cause damage if it escapes.
Explain the third requirement of R v F
Must be an escape from the D’s land. injury inflicted by the accumulation of a hazardous substance on the land itself will not invoke liability
Explain the fourth requirement of R v F
Must be a non natural use of land. The use of land must be ‘extraordinary and unusual’ where it must be both and not just one
Explain the fifth requirement of R v F
Must not be too remote. Liability is subject to rules on remoteness on how closely related the claimants damage is to what the D did
Explain the act of a stranger defence
D has complete defence if the escape was caused
by the act of a stranger over which D had no
control and whose actions could not have been
reasonably foreseen
Explain the act of god defence
This has the same meaning as under private
nuisance, but there is a different case example
Explain the statutory authority defence
This has the same meaning as under private
nuisance, but there is a different case example -
Green v Chelsea Waterworks Co (1894)
Explain the Consent/benefit defence
If C receives a benefit from the thing accumulated,
they may be deemed to have consented to its
accumulation