Rylands v Fletcher

• Rylands v Fletcher - definition

  4 requirements for the tort to work were identified:

  1. Something must have been collected and kept on the land;
  2. The use of the land must be non-natural;
  3. The thing brought onto the land must be likely to do mischief if it escaped;
  4. The thing brought onto the land must have escaped and caused damage (the damage must not be too remote)
• Rylands and Fletcher - 1st requirement

  There is no liability under Rylands v Fletcher for a thing which naturally accumulates on land.

  Giles v Walker - seeds from some thistles on D’s land blew into neighbouring land owned by C and damaged his crops. D wasn’t liable as he had not brought the thistles onto his land.
• Rylands v Fletcher - 2nd requirement (1/2)

  Ricklands v Lothian

  -> Lord Moulton said that it must be: “ some special use bringing with it increased danger to others”

  Cambridge Water v Eastern Counties Leather

  -> The storage of large quantities of chemicals on industrial premises was ’an almost classic case of non natural use’ even in an industrial area. HOL described nnu as meaning extraordinary and unusual.
• Rylands v Fletcher - 2nd requirement (2/2)


  Transco PLC v Stockport MBC

  -> provision of a water supply to a block of flats by a pope was a natural use of land.

  -> Lord Hoffman said that the rule in Rylands v Fletcher is engaged only where the D’s use is shown to be extraordinary and unusual
• Rylands v Fletcher - 3rd requirement

  Hale v Jennings Bros

  -> a roundabout chair on a fairground ride was held to have met this rule. It was held that the thing need not be inherently hazardous, it need only be a thing likely to cause damage if it escapes.

  Read v Lyons

  -> the court limited the meaning of escape to being where the dangerous thing moved from D’s premises to C’s
• Rylands v Fletcher - 4th requirement


  Cam ridge Water v Eastern Counties Leather

  -> D wasn’t liable as the damage was too remote. It was not reasonably foreseeable that the spillages would result in the closing of the borehole.

  It was not a type of harm expected (The Wagon Mound)