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The Wagon Mound (1961)

Last modified: Thu Feb 23 16:37:38 2006

[1961] AC 388 (PC). The defendants negligently allowed a spillage of oil from their vessel, which reached the claimant's wharf. The claimants sought advice on whether the oil was flammable and, being told (incorrectly) that it was not, continued welding work they had undertaken. The oil caught fire and did substantial damage. The claimants were able to recover in Negligence the cost of repairing the damage caused by the oil spillage, but not of the damage caused by the fire. Disapproving RePolemis1921, the Privy Council held that, although the defendants it was foreseeable that the oil would cause damage, the defendants had no way to foresee the full extent of the damage that it would eventually cause. As a result, the damage was too remote.

Technically, Wagon Mound is not binding on any UK court, but the approach it embodies appears to have been preferred by courts over that in Polemis.

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