Perspective on strict liability for consequences of reservoir failure: Rylands v. Fletcher

Failures and serious incidents at dams often lead to demands for improved public safety measures to reduce the hazards posed by the storage of large volumes of water. However, relatively little attention has been given to the issue of liability for the damage resulting from a sudden uncontrolled release of reservoir water. The Rylands v. Fletcher litigation, which arose not from the failure of a dam but from leakage at Ainsworth Mill Lodge flooding a coal mine, aimed to provide some clarity as to whether or not the liability of the reservoir owner depends on proof of negligence; this paper examines the influence of the major dam disasters at Bilberry and Dale Dyke on the verdict of strict liability. While it is claimed that strict liability based on Rylands v. Fletcher has found wide application in many other fields, it would seem that it has had relatively little use in reservoir failures.