Dear Colleagues,

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has decided an interesting case today, concerning liability under Rylands v Fletcher for fire damage. In Stannard (t/a Wyvern Tyres) v Gore [2012] EWCA Civ 1248 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2012/1248.html, the claimants sued the defendants for damage to their premises caused by a fire on the defendant's land, which was stoked by the ignition of a stack of tyres stored haphazardly on the land (the defendant was a tyre supplier). The Recorder had found liability to be established, but the Court of Appeal reverses this decision.

The judgments comprehensively survey the main authorities and the history of liability for fire damage in tort. Ward LJ provides a very readable leading opinion. It is held that as a matter of principle, "in an appropriate case damage caused by fire emanating from an adjoining property can fall within the Rylands v Fletcher rule. The appropriate case is likely to be very rare" ([47]). But there were problems on the facts because the "thing" on the land was the stock of tyres and not the fire itself, and tyres are not inherently dangerous, and the tyres did not escape. Further, the storage of the tyres was not a non-natural use of the land. Etherton and Lewison LJJ agree in the appeal, but Lewison LJ would "go further in limiting the scope of strict liability in relation to fire":



[166] "In my judgment the law is as stated in Goldman v Hargrave at least as regards fires that have not been deliberately kindled. An occupier of land will not be liable to his neighbour for a fire that begins accidentally unless he is negligent in failing to prevent its spread. The general test of negligence may entail the taking of special precautions where the use in question involves the accumulation or storage of inflammable or readily combustible materials. But that is a question of fact to be decided on a case by case basis"

Best wishes,

James

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James Lee
Lecturer and Director of Careers
Academic Fellow of the Inner Temple
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)121 414 3629
E-mail: j.s.f.lee@bham.ac.uk<mailto:j.s.f.lee@bham.ac.uk>



Web: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/law/lee-james.aspx