Nuisance and the Rylands v Fletcher rule—common law liability for pollution

Published by a ��Ƶ Environment expert

Practice notes

Nuisance and the Rylands v Fletcher rule—common law liability for pollution

Published by a ��Ƶ Environment expert

Practice notes

Private nuisance

Private nuisance is an unlawful interference with a person's use or enjoyment of land or some right over or in connection with it. Interference must be unreasonable, and may be caused, eg by water, smoke, smell, fumes, gas, Noise, heat or vibrations.

Where the defendant has not caused the nuisance, but merely permitted it to continue, then proof of negligence is required. Liability only arises where the defendant failed to take reasonable steps to abate the nuisance once it knew or ought to have known about it.

Pollution of ground or surface water that flows through the property of another constitutes a nuisance. In Willis v Derwentside District Council, the council was liable in nuisance for gas escaping not only from its land, but also from gas merely passing through the property in underground pipes.

The duty to abate a nuisance is not limited to solving the physical nuisance. In Willis, despite having completed remedial work, the Council continued to be liable until it issued a certificate of completion

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Rylands v Fletcher definition

What does Rylands v Fletcher mean?

The rule in Rylands v Fletcher creates a strict liability cause of action for foreseeable damage caused by escapes occasioned by non-natural use of land.

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