This chapter examines the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher, a rule which remains controversial to this day. The rule states that anyone who, in the course of a ‘non-natural’ use of his land ‘accumulates’ thereon for his own purposes anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, is answerable for all direct damage thereby caused. It discusses the requirements for liability, the various controlling mechanisms used to limit the scope of the rule; what and whose interests are protected by it; and the relationship between Rylands v. Fletcher and private nuisance. The chapter also explores the important questions that the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher raises about the nature, and future, of strict liability in the law of tort in general.
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Chapter
16. The Rule in Rylands v. Fletcher
Chapter
St Helen’s Smelting Co. v Tipping [1865] 11 ER 642
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in St Helen’s Smelting Co. v Tipping [1865] 11 ER 642. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Chapter
Coventry v Lawrence [2014] UKSC 13
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Coventry v Lawrence [2014] UKSC 13. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Chapter
Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2023] UKSC 4
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2023] UKSC 4. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Chapter
Transco plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council [2004] 2 AC 1
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Transco plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council [2004] 2 AC 1. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Chapter
St Helen’s Smelting Co. v Tipping [1865] 11 ER 642
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in St Helen’s Smelting Co. v Tipping [1865] 11 ER 642. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Chapter
Coventry v Lawrence [2014] UKSC 13
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Coventry v Lawrence [2014] UKSC 13. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Chapter
Transco plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council [2004] 2 AC 1
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Transco plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council [2004] 2 AC 1. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Book
Kirsty Horsey and Erika Rackley
Kidner’s Casebook on Torts provides a comprehensive, portable library of the leading cases in the field. It presents a wide range of carefully edited extracts, which illustrate the essence and reasoning behind each decision made. Concise author commentary focuses the reader on the key elements within the extracts. Statutory materials are also included where they are necessary to understand the subject. The book examines the tort of negligence including chapters on the basic principles of duty of care, omissions and acts of third parties, the liability of public bodies, psychiatric harm, economic loss, breach of duty, causation and remoteness of damage and defences. It goes on to consider three special liability regimes—occupiers’ liability, product liability and breach of statutory duty—before turning to discussion of the personal torts and land torts. It concludes with chapters on vicarious liability and damages.
Book
Kirsty Horsey and Erika Rackley
The Casebook on Tort Law provides a comprehensive, portable library of the leading cases in the field. It presents a wide range of carefully edited extracts, which illustrate the essence and reasoning behind each decision made. Concise author commentary focuses the reader on the key elements within the extracts. Statutory materials are also included where they are necessary to understand the subject. The book examines the tort of negligence including chapters on the basic principles of duty of care, omissions and acts of third parties, the liability of public bodies, psychiatric harm, economic loss, breach of duty, causation and remoteness of damage and defences. It goes on to consider three special liability regimes—occupiers’ liability, product liability and breach of statutory duty—before turning to discussion of the personal torts and land torts. It concludes with chapters on vicarious liability and damages.
Chapter
11. The Tortious Liability of Businesses in Negligence and Nuisance
This chapter first discusses one of the most important torts—negligence—which may be commonly seen in instances of personal injury. This is followed by a discussion on acts of private and public nuisance. Torts law is particularly relevant to businesses as they need to be aware of the extent of their potential liabilities to workers, visitors to business premises, other businesses, and to the general public. This extends to ensuring that safe systems of work exist and appropriate insurance is maintained. Contrary to civil law, torts law imposes obligations on parties who wish to undertake duties freely and agree to be legally bound via contracts without, necessarily, prior agreement. The duty is to take reasonable care and not intentionally or negligently cause harm or damage.
Chapter
Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd [1997] AC 655
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd [1997] AC 655. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Chapter
Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd [1997] AC 655
Essential Cases: Tort Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd [1997] AC 655. The document also included supporting commentary from author Craig Purshouse.
Chapter
16. Trespass to land and nuisance
This chapter considers two ‘land torts’: trespass to land and private nuisance. Trespass to land protects a person in possession of land against direct invasion of his property. The right to sue includes not only those with a proprietorial interest in the land, such as owners and tenants, but also those who have exclusive occupation such as squatters. The fact that any invasion of land, however minute and whether it causes damage or not, is a trespass, indicates that the primary function of this tort is to protect rights in property, rather than simply to provide compensation. The chapter continues by distinguishing between public and private nuisance. It then discusses the interests protected in private nuisance; the standard of reasonable user; the person(s) liable for nuisance; remoteness of damage; statutory authority and planning permission; and the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998 on nuisance claims.
Chapter
15. Business-related torts
This chapter examines the different types of torts that can affect businesses. A number of these torts (namely product liability, and wrongful interference with goods) aim to protect persons’ usage of goods, whereas other torts (such as nuisance, and the tort in Rylands v Fletcher) are more about protecting persons’ enjoyment of land and property. The tort of occupiers’ liability discusses the duties that are owed by persons who occupy land to those who are present on that land (both lawful visitors and non-lawful visotors). The chapter also discusses the protection of more abstract interests, such as how the law of defamation seeks to protect a person’s reputation. In addition, a number of other torts are discussed, including employers’ liability, and breach of statutory duty.
Chapter
11. Nuisance
All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing able students with a stand-alone resource. This chapter is concerned with two forms of action in nuisance: public nuisance and private nuisance. It begins by considering the basis of liability in private nuisance and the difficulties presented by cases of overlap between negligence and nuisance. It also discusses the relationship between private and public interests and the relevance of the Human Rights Act 1998. The chapter concludes by assessing the role of community or public interest in nuisance actions, particularly in relation to remedies, and recent attempts to use public nuisance in particular to restrain collective activities on the basis of public order. Relevant court cases are cited where appropriate.
Chapter
18. Torts
This chapter discusses two torts relevant to the operation of rights in land: trespass and nuisance. Trespass to land is the unlawful interference with or incursion on another's possession of land. It is not a tort which protects ownership; its operation is relative. Thus, a trespasser can themselves sue a subsequent trespasser on the basis of this tort, if the first trespasser has gone into possession of the land. Trespass in this sense is a tort against possession of land. Unlike trespass, however, the law relating to nuisance is complex and even incoherent. In its absolute basic terms, nuisance is the tort of interference with another's reasonable use or enjoyment of their land, usually as a result of an unreasonable use of neighbouring land. The chapter then assesses the relationship between these torts and rights in land. It also explores the remedies which are available in response to such tortious actions.
Chapter
11. Trespass to the person and to land
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, diagrams, and exercises help readers engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress. Trespass, one of the oldest torts, takes three forms that are all actionable per se: trespass to the person, trespass to land, and trespass to goods. In each case, a claimant is not required to prove damage to bring an action in trespass. Many modern cases of trespass to the person are taken against the police or other public officials, mainly to vindicate the claimant’s rights rather than to obtain an award of damages in compensation. This chapter focuses on trespass to the person and trespass to land, the former of which involves an intentional infliction of harm without a direct interference.
Chapter
13. Rylands v Fletcher
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. Questions, diagrams, and exercises help readers engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress. Rylands v Fletcher was an 1868 case that gave birth to a rule imposing strict liability for damage caused by the escape of dangerous things from land. The tort in Rylands v Fletcher differs from nuisance because it does not consider the involvement of the defendant in a continuous activity or an ongoing state of affairs. What distinguishes Rylands v Fletcher from actions in negligence is that there is no need for the existence of a duty of care and its breach, along with the questionable place of personal injury as an actionable type of damage. This chapter examines the tort in Rylands v Fletcher and the nature of the rule that arose from it. It also considers recent case law developments concerning Rylands v Fletcher and their impact on the current state of the law. Finally, the chapter evaluates the defences pertaining to Rylands v Fletcher.
Book
Jenny Steele
All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing able students with a stand-alone resource. Tort Law: Text, Cases, and Materials combines incisive commentary with carefully selected extracts from primary and secondary materials to provide a balance of support and encouragement. This volume starts by introducing the fundamental principles of the subject before moving on to discuss more challenging issues, hoping to encourage a full understanding of the subject and an appreciation of the more complex debates surrounding the law of tort. The text starts by providing an overview. Various torts are then arranged along a spectrum from intentional torts, through negligence, to stricter liabilities. Also considered are issues relating to damages, compensation, limitation, and vicarious liability. After introducing intentional torts, the book looks at the tort of negligence. Chapters also cover nuisance and duties relating to land and defamation and privacy. Finally, stricter liabilities are examined such as product liability.
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