“House of Lords restricts Rylands v Fletcher liability to truly exceptional land uses”
Stockport MBC's water main burst due to extreme weather conditions, causing an embankment to collapse and damaging Transco's gas pipeline beneath. Transco sued under Rylands v Fletcher for the cost of repairs and safety measures, arguing the water supply constituted a dangerous accumulation on land.
Whether the operation of a water supply system constituted a non-natural use of land giving rise to strict liability under Rylands v Fletcher when it caused damage to neighboring property
The House of Lords unanimously dismissed Transco's appeal, holding that a municipal water supply was not a non-natural use of land and therefore did not attract strict liability under Rylands v Fletcher
This decision significantly narrowed the scope of Rylands v Fletcher, making it much harder to establish strict liability claims and emphasizing that only genuinely exceptional land uses will attract liability
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OSCOLA Citation
Transco Plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council [2003] UKHL 61, [2004] 2 AC 1
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