Strict Liability under the Rule in Rylands v. Fletcher

Notes:

As the facts stipulate, this is a sample question on strict liability; your stress is lesser here since it is clearly stated as a strict liability question.

In answering any question on strict liability under the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher, your second step after identifying the legal issue is to state the four requirements that must be met before the rule will apply. This is of utmost importance. You must state them and apply them one after the other to the facts of your exam question. You must be able to reach a conclusion on whether each of these four requirements has been met before you finally conclude on whether the rule will apply. You will see this approach in our sample answer.

It is also important to be alert with this type of question: it instructs you to advise the parties. Firstly, the parties to be advised are Alpha Century and Maverick Ltd, because they are the ones contemplating legal actions. Don’t stray into bringing in the Board or Alex; it will be a waste of time because there are no facts in the question to support strict liability against them.

Secondly, since you are to advise the parties, (which we have identified as Alpha Century and Maverick Ltd), it means you must analyze whether Alpha Century has a sustainable claim for strict liability against Maverick, and also whether Maverick has a sustainable defence against the tort of strict liability. This is very important and you must address both sides. That’s what the question requires of you.