Court case(1868) LR 3 HL 330

Rylands, a mill owner in Lancashire, employed competent independent contractors to build a reservoir on his land to supply water to his mill. Beneath the site lay disused and filled-in shafts of an old coal mine which, unknown to Rylands, communicated with the working colliery of his neighbour Fletcher. The contractors noticed the old shafts but did not seal them properly. When the reservoir was filled, the water burst through the shafts and flooded Fletcher's mine. Rylands himself had been neither careless nor aware of the danger; the negligence, if any, was the contractors'. Fletcher sued for the damage to his mine.

In the Exchequer Chamber Blackburn J. laid down the rule: "the person who for his own purposes brings on his lands and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, must keep it in at his peril, and, if he does not do so, is prima facie answerable for all the damage which is the natural consequence of its escape." He can excuse himself only by showing that the escape was the plaintiff's own default or the act of God. The House of Lords (Lord Cairns LC and Lord Cranworth) affirmed, Lord Cairns adding that the principle applies where the defendant puts his land to a non-natural use; had the water accumulated by the ordinary working of nature, the defendant would not have been liable.