web analytics

Menu

Skip to content
Shades of Knife
  • Home
  • True Colors of a Vile Wife
  • Need Inspiration?
  • Blog Updates
  • SOK Gallery
  • Vile News Reporter
  • About Me
  • Contact Me

Shades of Knife

True Colors of a Vile Wife

3 Years LLB General – Law of Torts – 20 Marks Answers

Posted on February 21, 2019 by ShadesOfKnife

Q1: An independent contractor constructed a reservoir and because of heavy rains it collapsed and damaged the coal fields beside it. The owner of coal fields which got damaged wants to approach the court. Explain the liability.
 

Facts of the case:

  • Certain coal fields are owned by a person.
  • A reservoir was constructed beside the coal fields by an independent contractor
  • Due to heavy rains, the reservoir collapsed
  • The water from the collapsed reservoir damaged the coal fields

Issues/Questions Involved in the case:

  • Can the owner of coal fields which got damaged due to the reservoir water approach the court for recovery of loss incurred by him?

Decision/Judgement arrived at in the case:

  • Yes, the owner of coal fields which got damaged due to the reservoir water can approach the court for recovery of loss incurred by him from the owner of the reservoir via Strict Liability rule.

Reasons/Principles Applied to arrive at the Decision:

Meaning of Strict Liability:

‘Rule of Strict Liability’ in Torts mean liability without fault, that is to say, without intention or negligence on the part of defendant. This liability is also famously called as liability under Rylands v. Fletcher of 1868 [1868 LR 3 HL 330]. This rule applies to ‘anything likely to do mischief if it escapes’ such as gas, electricity, vibration, explosives, engines, noxious fumes and water in large quantity.

Essential for application of ‘rule of Strict liability’:

  1. Some dangerous thing brought or collected by a person on his land

There should be a dangerous thing brought on land which is likely to escape and cause damage

  1. Escape of the dangerous thing

The power escape of the dangerous thing must be inherent. The term escape means ‘escape from a place which is under defendant’s occupation or control’.

  1. Non-natural use of land

Collection of dangerous things in a big quantity, which causes damage to the other if it escapes from that place, is considered to be non-natural us of land.

This liability arises when there is a non-natural use of land happening. In such a case, the defendant is held liable even for accidental harm and the plaintiff need not prove negligence or absence of care on the part of defendant.

Acts done by an independent contractor:

Generally, an employer us not liable for the wrongful acts done by an independent contractor. But it is no defence to the application of this rule that the act causing damage had been done by an independent contractor. It is the employer’s duty to keep such dangerous substances in a proper and safe way so that is does not cause injury to others.

Exceptions:

  1. Plaintiff’s default: It is a good defence to this rule where the damage caused by the escape is due to the plaintiff’s own default.
  2. Act of God: This defence may be taken when the escape of the dangerous thing has been caused due to the operation of natural forces, and which cannot be avoided in spite of the reasonable case, and also in unforeseen circumstances.
  3. Natural use of land: Where it is natural use of land as it is good defence, the liability cannot arise except when it is proved that the land is used for non-natural use. Also keeping dangerous things for domestic purpose or in a small quantity is a natural use of land.
  4. Plaintiff’s consent: The maxim ‘volenti non fit injuria’ meaning where there is a voluntary consent for a thing, liability does not arise, for any loss arising after giving such consent. When a person consents for bringing the dangerous is thing to a place from which it may cause him injury, if it escapes, has no right of action or claim, unless he can prove negligence.
  5. Act of Third party: The defendant will not be held liable under the rule where a stranger caused some harm.
  6. Statutory Authority: It is a good defence where liability does not arise as the damage has been caused due to the implementation of mandate of Statutory Authority.

Supporting Case laws/precedents/references:

  1. Rylands v. Fletcher [1868 LR 3 HL 330]

The plaintiff was the occupier of certain coal mines. The defendant were the owners and occupiers of a mill adjoining the plaintiff’s land. The defendants wished to construct a reservoir. They employed a competent engineer and contractor to do so. There were some old passages of disuse in the mines of the defendant’s land. The contractors failed to observe and they didn’t block them. When the water was filled in the reservoir, the water broke through the shaft and filtered through to the disused mine shafts and then spread to a working mine owned by the claimant causing extensive damage to the plaintiff’s mines. The defendants didn’t know because it was constructed by an independent contractor. In this case, the Court held the defendants liable, though there was no negligence on their part. It was held that for liability to arise under the ‘rule of Strict Liability’, no need of proving any negligence on the part of defendant.

  1. Nichols v. Marsland [(1876) 2 Ex D 1]

The defendant diverted a natural stream on his land to create ornamental lakes. Exceptionally heavy rain caused the artificial lakes and waterways to be flooded and damaged adjoining land. The defendant was held not liable under Rylands v Fletcher as the cause of the flood was an act of God.

  1. Green v. Chejsea Waterworks Company [(1894) 70 LT 547]

The defendant company had a statutory duty to maintain continuous supply of water.  Plaintiff’s premises were flooded with water due to burst of a main pipe belonging to the company. In this case, it was held that the company was not liability as the company was engaged in performing a statutory duty and there is no negligence on the part of plaintiff too.

Position in India:

The rule laid down in Rylands v. Fletcher of strict liability is also applied in India with slight variations. Liability without fault has been recognized in case of Motor Vehicle accidents. However, the motor vehicle’s owners get their vehicles insured to protect themselves from the situation after accidents. It is called as Third-Party Insurance and is mandated by the law.

Conclusion to the Problem:

In view of the above discussion, the owner of the coal fields can approach Court to recover the losses he incurred due to the strict liability arising on the independent contractor and the owner of the land on which the reservoir was constructed.


Go to the Index Page for other Subjects material.

Shades of Knife


Disclaimer:

Curated, Reproduced from main.sci.gov.in, judis.nic.in, lobis.nic.in, indiacode.nic.in and other Indian High Court and District Court Websites such as ecourts.gov.in or any other Government websites such as Gazettes and repositories of Government Orders and Commented in accordance with Section 52(1)(q) of the Copyright Act 1957 (India) and any other applicable public disclosure laws/provisions in India and in various other countries.

I neither have control to remove copies of this document(s) that may be available on websites of High Courts or Supreme Court of India or any of the many other sites, law journal or reporters which carry the same judgment in entire form, nor I can remove references/links to this document(s) from the results of Search Engines such as Google.com.

Read more gyan here.

Though, I can remove content from my site, on request for any parties to a case, even though, I am not legally obligated to do so, except for express bar from a Competent Court.

Om Shanthi !!!


Oh, by the way, my competent Legal team delivers time-bound legal reliefs to victims of false family and matrimonial cases at

AnaghaLegalReliefs.in !!! (work-in-progress)

We are on social media too.
Just google for: Anagha Legal Reliefs

Posted in LLB Study Material | Tagged LLB Subjects and Previous Year Exam Papers and Answers | Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Search within entire Content of “Shades of Knife”

My Legal Twitter Timeline

Tweets by @SandeepPamarati

My MRA Twitter Timeline

Tweets by @Shadesofknife

Recent Posts

  • State of Maharashtra Vs Dnyaneshwar Laxman Rao Wankhede on 29 Jul 2009 January 26, 2023
  • Sabiya Begum Malka Vs State of U.P. and Ors on 18 May 2016 January 24, 2023
  • Y.Narasimha Rao and Ors Vs Y.Venkata Lakshmi and Anr on 9 Jul 1991 January 19, 2023
  • Messers S.J.S. Business Enterprises Vs State of Bihar and Ors on 17 Mar 2004 January 17, 2023
  • Ramjas Foundation and Ors vs Union of India and Ors on 9 Nov 2010 January 17, 2023

Most Read Posts

  • Do you know that there is time limit of 60 days to dispose of a Domestic Violence case in India under sec 12(5) of PWDV Act? (8,889 views)
  • XXX Vs State of Kerala and Ors on 05 July 2022 (2,799 views)
  • Ratandeep Singh Ahuja Vs Harpreet Kaur on 11 Oct 2022 (867 views)
  • State Bank of India and Anr Vs Ajay Kumar Sood on 16 Aug 2022 (837 views)
  • Abbas Hatimbhai Kagalwala Vs The State of Maharashtra and Anr on 23 Aug 2022 (816 views)
  • Bar Council of India Vs Bonnie Foi Law College and Ors (710 views)
  • P Parvathi Vs Pathloth Mangamma on 7 Jul 2022 (658 views)
  • Sandeep Pamarati Vs State of AP and Anr on 29 Sep 2022 (Disposal of DVC in 60 days) (658 views)
  • Mukesh Singh versus State of Uttar Pradesh on 30 Sep 2022 (572 views)
  • Joginder Singh Vs Rajwinder Kaur on 29 Oct 2022 (556 views)

Tags

Legal Procedure Explained - Interpretation of Statutes (323)Reportable Judgement or Order (319)Landmark Case (310)2-Judge (Division) Bench Decision (259)Work-In-Progress Article (218)Catena of Landmark Judgments Referred/Cited to (210)1-Judge Bench Decision (145)Sandeep Pamarati (88)3-Judge (Full) Bench Decision (79)Article 21 - Protection of life and personal liberty (74)Perjury Under 340 CrPC (53)Issued or Recommended Guidelines or Directions or Protocols to be followed (52)Absurd Or After Thought Or Baseless Or False Or General Or Inherently Improbable Or Improved Or UnSpecific Or Omnibus Or Vague Allegations (51)Reprimands or Setbacks to YCP Govt of Andhra Pradesh (49)Summary Post (46)CrPC 482 - Quash (38)Not Authentic copy hence to be replaced (34)Advocate Antics (34)Rules of the Act/Ordinance/Notification/Circular (33)IPC 498a - Not Made Out (32)

Categories

Supreme Court of India Judgment or Order or Notification (629)Bare Acts or State Amendments or Statutes or GOs or Notifications issued by Central or State Governments (297)High Court of Andhra Pradesh Judgment or Order or Notification (159)High Court of Delhi Judgment or Order or Notification (108)High Court of Bombay Judgment or Order or Notification (91)High Court of Karnataka Judgment or Order or Notification (66)General Study Material (55)High Court of Madras Judgment or Order or Notification (53)Assorted Court Judgments or Orders or Notifications (48)Prakasam DV Cases (46)LLB Study Material (45)High Court of Punjab & Haryana Judgment or Order or Notification (45)Judicial Activism (for Public Benefit) (40)High Court of Allahabad Judgment or Order or Notification (39)District or Sessions or Magistrate Court Judgment or Order or Notification (38)High Court of Kerala Judgment or Order or Notification (30)High Court of Gujarat Judgment or Order or Notification (25)High Court of Madhya Pradesh Judgment or Order or Notification (25)High Court of Calcutta Judgment or Order or Notification (18)High Court of Patna Judgment or Order or Notification (17)

Recent Comments

  • ShadesOfKnife on Beena MS Vs Shino G Babu on 04 Feb 2022
  • Vincent on Beena MS Vs Shino G Babu on 04 Feb 2022
  • ShadesOfKnife on Syed Nazim Husain Vs Additional Principal Judge Family Court & Anr on 9 January, 2003
  • Ravi on Syed Nazim Husain Vs Additional Principal Judge Family Court & Anr on 9 January, 2003
  • ShadesOfKnife on Beena MS Vs Shino G Babu on 04 Feb 2022

Archives of SoK

  • January 2023 (12)
  • December 2022 (12)
  • November 2022 (8)
  • October 2022 (13)
  • September 2022 (17)
  • August 2022 (10)
  • July 2022 (21)
  • June 2022 (27)
  • May 2022 (23)
  • April 2022 (32)
  • March 2022 (17)
  • February 2022 (6)
  • January 2022 (2)
  • December 2021 (7)
  • November 2021 (7)
  • October 2021 (6)
  • September 2021 (10)
  • August 2021 (31)
  • July 2021 (45)
  • June 2021 (17)
  • May 2021 (17)
  • April 2021 (18)
  • March 2021 (58)
  • February 2021 (14)
  • January 2021 (50)
  • December 2020 (35)
  • November 2020 (68)
  • October 2020 (67)
  • September 2020 (29)
  • August 2020 (41)
  • July 2020 (20)
  • June 2020 (36)
  • May 2020 (40)
  • April 2020 (38)
  • March 2020 (26)
  • February 2020 (43)
  • January 2020 (35)
  • December 2019 (35)
  • November 2019 (4)
  • October 2019 (18)
  • September 2019 (58)
  • August 2019 (33)
  • July 2019 (12)
  • June 2019 (19)
  • May 2019 (5)
  • April 2019 (19)
  • March 2019 (58)
  • February 2019 (11)
  • January 2019 (90)
  • December 2018 (97)
  • November 2018 (43)
  • October 2018 (31)
  • September 2018 (73)
  • August 2018 (47)
  • July 2018 (143)
  • June 2018 (92)
  • May 2018 (102)
  • April 2018 (59)
  • March 2018 (8)

Blogroll

  • Daaman Promoting Harmony 0
  • Fight against Legal Terrorism Fight against Legal Terrorism along with MyNation Foundation 0
  • Good Morning Good Morning News 0
  • Insaaf India Insaaf Awareness Movement 0
  • MyNation Hope Foundation Wiki 0
  • MyNation.net Equality, Justice and Harmony 0
  • Sarvepalli Legal 0
  • Save Indian Family Save Indian Family Movement 0
  • SIF Chandigarh SIF Chandigarh 0
  • The Male Factor The Male Factor 0
  • Vaastav Foundation The Social Reality 0
  • Voice4india Indian Laws, Non-profits, Environment 0
  • Writing Law Writing Law by Ankur 0

RSS Cloudflare Status

  • Maintenance impacting SSL API availability and certificate issuance February 14, 2023
    THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Feb 14, 14:00 - 16:00 UTCJan 26, 10:38 UTCScheduled - On February 14th, 2023, Cloudflare will be doing database maintenance that will impact SSL API availability and may result in certificate issuance delays. The scheduled maintenance will be on February 14, 2023, 14:00 - 16:00 UTC.During the maintenance window, SSL-related […]
  • BOS (Boston) on 2023-02-03 February 3, 2023
    THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Feb 3, 07:00 - 13:00 UTCJan 28, 10:00 UTCScheduled - We will be performing scheduled maintenance in BOS (Boston) datacenter on 2023-02-03 between 07:00 and 13:00 UTC. Traffic might be re-routed from this location, hence there is a possibility of a slight increase in latency during this maintenance window for […]
  • JNB (Johannesburg) on 2023-02-03 February 3, 2023
    THIS IS A SCHEDULED EVENT Feb 3, 01:00 - 03:30 UTCJan 27, 01:20 UTCScheduled - We will be performing scheduled maintenance in JNB (Johannesburg) datacenter on 2023-02-03 between 01:00 and 03:30 UTC. Traffic might be re-routed from this location, hence there is a possibility of a slight increase in latency during this maintenance window for […]

RSS List of Spam Server IPs from Project Honeypot

  • 45.117.141.165 | SD January 30, 2023
    Event: Bad Event | Total: 2,555 | First: 2015-09-03 | Last: 2023-01-30
  • 203.33.207.187 | S January 30, 2023
    Event: Bad Event | Total: 2 | First: 2023-01-30 | Last: 2023-01-30
  • 103.4.118.130 | SD January 30, 2023
    Event: Bad Event | Total: 1,940 | First: 2018-08-17 | Last: 2023-01-30
Proudly powered by WordPress
Theme: Flint by Star Verte LLC

Bad Behavior has blocked 428 access attempts in the last 7 days.

pixel