Foreseeability of Harm CASES
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A council water pipe burst, damaging Transco's gas main. Transco sued under the strict liability rule in Rylands v Fletcher. The House of Lords held the council was not liable, as supplying water through ordinary pipes was a natural, not a non-natural, use of land. Facts The respondent, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, owned a 22-storey block of flats. They were responsible for a large high-pressure pipe which supplied water from the mains to storage tanks in the building. A fracture occurred in this pipe, which was located in the basement of the flats. The leak was not detected for a
A recording studio experienced electromagnetic interference in its electric guitars from new railway signalling. The studio owner sued in nuisance. The Court of Appeal held that this specific type of harm was not foreseeable, shifting the legal test from 'abnormal sensitivity' to foreseeability. Facts The claimant, Mr Morris, ran a commercial recording studio, Soundstar Studio, in Croydon. The studio was located approximately 80 metres from the main railway line between London and Brighton. In 1994, Railtrack plc (the predecessor to Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd, the appellant) installed new track circuits as part of a major re-signalling project. These circuits generated
A tannery's historical, gradual chemical spills contaminated a water company's borehole. The House of Lords held the defendant was not liable, finding the environmental damage was not a reasonably foreseeable consequence, thereby establishing foreseeability of harm as an essential element for liability in nuisance and Rylands v Fletcher. Facts The respondent, Eastern Counties Leather plc (ECL), operated a leather tannery in Sawston, Cambridgeshire. In their tanning process, they used a chemical solvent, Perchloroethene (PCE). Over many years, small quantities of PCE were spilt onto the concrete floor of their facility. These spillages seeped through the floor and into the chalk
