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01 February 2013 / Jonathan Fowles
Issue: 7546 / Categories: Features , Property
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Fire escape

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Jonathan Fowles reviews the latest attempt to wrestle with strict liability for fire damage

In Stannard (t/a Wyvern tyres) v Gore [2012] EWCA Civ 1248 the Court of Appeal has had to consider the liability of an occupier for fire which starts on his land without fault and spreads to the land of another. For any lawyer with a decent memory of his law of tort, this will immediately bring to mind the rule in Rylands v Fletcher. He may also remember that the rule has been limited almost to the point of extinction by successive decisions of the UK’s highest court (see most recently Transco plc v Stockport MBC [2004] 2 AC 1).

Rylands v Fletcher

As originally formulated by Blackburn J in the Court of Exchequer Chamber ((1866) LR 1 Ex 265 at 279), the rule in Rylands v Fletcher was that: “The person who for his own purposes brings onto his own lands and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, must keep

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