You know
the old saying - you can't choose your family and you can't choose your
neighbours - well, some of us think we are dead unlucky with our neighbours.
They can be such a pain - parking their caravan on the front drive, having
parties, playing the trumpet, having bonfires in the garden, you know the sort
of thing. Well, the next time a little bit of smoke is floating across the
garden fence or you have just heard the 150th attempt at a major C scale, spare
a thought for poor old John Rylands who had been happily mining his land for
coal. Like a mole he had dug some nice tunnels and was content in their
construction, when, dash-it-all, the Fletchers next door built a reservoir to
run their mill. Needless to say, as plastic pond-liners hadn't been invented
back in 1868, the water seeped into the ground and flooded Rylands'
lovingly-excavated tunnels and mine-shafts. Well, they'd put up with the
trumpet-tootling and the bonfires but this was the straw that broke the camel's
back.
Off they went to court but sadly, the first court said that having water on your land is not the sort of thing that you can complain about your neighbours for - even if it is a reservoir. Rylands took issue with the "nuisance" perpetrated by Fletcher but the court held that there had been no negligence by Fletcher, so tough! Rylands was clearly not the sort of person to give in; he appealed and the case finally got to the highest court in the land - the House of Lords.
So, perseverance won the day in the end and it was another great moment in the annals of English legal cases that prove a point. The point it proved is that if you take something on to your land which is likely to do mischief if it escapes and it does so, then you will be liable for the damage. Here are a few words from the Lord Chancellor for your enjoyment:
"The person whose grass or corn is eaten down by the escaping cattle of his neighbour, or whose mine is flooded by the water from his neighbour's reservoir, or whose cellar is invaded by the filth of his neighbour's privy, or whose habitation is made unhealthy by the fumes and noisome vapours of his neighbour's alkali works, is damnified without any fault of his own; and it seems but reasonable and just that the neighbour who has brought something on his own property (which was not naturally there), harmless to others so long as it is confined to his own property, but which he knows will be mischievous if it gets on his neighbour's, should be obliged to make good the damage which ensues if he does not succeed in confining it to his own property." (Lord Cairns) (Rylands v Fletcher [1868] UKHL 1)
The question was not whether Fletcher had acted with due care and caution, it was whether his actions had caused the damage. This is the doctrine of strict liability.
So next time you take rampaging cattle into your garden or produce stenches from your industrial processes or even, perish the thought, have a seriously leaky loo, be prepared to have your poor "damnified" next-door neighbour take you to court for being a right rotten nuisance.
Tina Morgan www.john-kennedy.co.uk
Off they went to court but sadly, the first court said that having water on your land is not the sort of thing that you can complain about your neighbours for - even if it is a reservoir. Rylands took issue with the "nuisance" perpetrated by Fletcher but the court held that there had been no negligence by Fletcher, so tough! Rylands was clearly not the sort of person to give in; he appealed and the case finally got to the highest court in the land - the House of Lords.
So, perseverance won the day in the end and it was another great moment in the annals of English legal cases that prove a point. The point it proved is that if you take something on to your land which is likely to do mischief if it escapes and it does so, then you will be liable for the damage. Here are a few words from the Lord Chancellor for your enjoyment:
"The person whose grass or corn is eaten down by the escaping cattle of his neighbour, or whose mine is flooded by the water from his neighbour's reservoir, or whose cellar is invaded by the filth of his neighbour's privy, or whose habitation is made unhealthy by the fumes and noisome vapours of his neighbour's alkali works, is damnified without any fault of his own; and it seems but reasonable and just that the neighbour who has brought something on his own property (which was not naturally there), harmless to others so long as it is confined to his own property, but which he knows will be mischievous if it gets on his neighbour's, should be obliged to make good the damage which ensues if he does not succeed in confining it to his own property." (Lord Cairns) (Rylands v Fletcher [1868] UKHL 1)
The question was not whether Fletcher had acted with due care and caution, it was whether his actions had caused the damage. This is the doctrine of strict liability.
So next time you take rampaging cattle into your garden or produce stenches from your industrial processes or even, perish the thought, have a seriously leaky loo, be prepared to have your poor "damnified" next-door neighbour take you to court for being a right rotten nuisance.
Tina Morgan www.john-kennedy.co.uk
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