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Article: Rylands v. Fletcher
- Article from:
- West's Encyclopedia of American Law
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RYLANDS V. FLETCHER
Rylands v. Fletcher
was the 1868 English case (L.R. 3 H.L. 330) that was the progenitor of the doctrine of strict liability for abnormally dangerous conditions and activities.
The defendants, mill owners in the coal mining area of Lancashire, had constructed a reservoir on their land. The water broke through the filled-in shaft of an abandoned coal mine and flooded connecting passageways into the plaintiff's active mine nearby. In 1865, the trial court found that the defendants were ignorant of the abandoned mine shaft and free of negligence and decided the case in favor of the defendants.
In 1866, on appeal by the plaintiffs, the Exchequer Chamber decided to reverse ...