Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v The Miller Steamship Co (The Wagon Mound No 2)
[1967] 1 AC 617
Ratio Decidendi
Damage is reasonably foreseeable (and therefore not too remote) if there is a real risk of its occurrence, even if the probability is small. A reasonable person would not ignore a risk which was real and not far-fetched or fanciful.
حقائق
The same oil spill as The Wagon Mound (No 1). This action was brought by owners of ships damaged by the fire, with different evidence suggesting that fire damage from oil on water, though unlikely, was not unforeseeable.
فیصلے کا خلاصہ
The Privy Council held that the fire damage was reasonably foreseeable on the evidence in this case. The risk of fire, though small, was real and not far-fetched. A reasonable person in the defendants' position would not have ignored the risk.
اہم اقتباسات
"A reasonable man would only neglect a risk which was of a far-fetched or fanciful character."
— Lord Reid
بعد کا علاج
Clarifies the foreseeability test: even small risks are foreseeable if not 'far-fetched or fanciful'. Also applies the Bolton v Stone standard.