Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v Morts Dock & Engineering Co Ltd (The Wagon Mound No 1)
[1961] AC 388
Ratio Decidendi
The test for remoteness of damage in negligence is reasonable foreseeability, not directness. A defendant is only liable for damage of a kind that a reasonable person would have foreseen.
Facts
The defendants carelessly discharged furnace oil from their ship, The Wagon Mound, into Sydney Harbour. The oil spread to the claimant's wharf where welding was being carried out. Sparks from the welding ignited cotton waste floating on the oil, causing a fire that damaged the wharf.
Judgment Summary
The Privy Council held that the defendants were not liable for the fire damage. While the oil spillage was foreseeable, fire damage from the spillage of furnace oil on water was not reasonably foreseeable. The Re Polemis direct consequence test was overruled.
Key Quotes
"It does not seem consonant with current ideas of justice or morality that for an act of negligence, however slight or venial, which results in some trivial foreseeable damage the actor should be liable for all consequences however unforeseeable."
— Viscount Simonds
Subsequent Treatment
Replaced the Re Polemis test. Now the definitive test for remoteness of damage in negligence.