Rylands v Fletcher Flashcards
(10 cards)
What is Rylands v Fletcher
- Common law land tort
- No fault
Who are the parties in Rylands v Fletcher
- Claimant = legal interest in the land
- Defendant = control of the land where the accumulation/escape occurred
What are the elements
1 - Accumulation
2 - Non-natural use of land
3 - Likely to cause mischief
4 - Escape
5 - Damage
Element 1
Accumulation
- D brought/accumulated something on their land
- For their own purpose (Dunne v NW Gas Board)
- Thing escaped not need to be the same as the thing accumulated (Miles v Forest Rock)
Element 2
Non-natural use of land
- Non naturally occuring (Giles v Walker)
- Can be non inherently dangerous but stored in dangerous quantities (Rylands v Fletcher)
- Chemicals are non natural (Cambridge Waterworks Co v Eastern County Leathers)
- Utilities are natural use
- Unnatural if our of ordinary time/place
Element 3
Likely to cause mischief if escaped
- Can be a dangerous activity/thing (Hale v Jennings)
- Dangerous quanitities
Element 4
The thing must escape
- From D’s land to C’s land
- Does not include personal injury (Read v Lyons)
- Can be plants growing over borders (Crowhurst v Amsterdam Burial Board)
- Thing must escape (fire) not merely consequence (smoke) (Stannard v Gore)
- Must leave land not C come to it (Pontings v Noakes)
- Does not include delayed release
Element 5
Thing must cause damage
- Must be foreseeable, not too remote (Cambridge Waterworks Co v Eastern County Leathers)
- Includes lost quiet enjoyment of land
Remedies
- No claim for personal injury or pure economic loss
- Must be property damage or lost quiet enjoyment of land
- Remedy via compensatory damages
Defences
- Volenti non fit injuria (C’s consent) (Carstairs v Taylor)
- Contributory negligence (partly C’s fault, no liability if fully C’s fault)
- 3rd party act (Perry v Kendricks)
- Act of God (Nicholls v Marland)
- Statutory authority (Green v Chelsea Waterworks)
