An ultrahazardous activity in the

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

torts A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

is one that is so inherently dangerous that a person engaged in such an activity can be held

strictly liable In criminal and civil law, strict liability is a standard of liability under which a person is legally responsible for the consequences flowing from an activity even in the absence of fault or criminal intent on the part of the defendant. ...

for injuries caused to another person, even if the person engaged in the activity took every reasonable precaution to prevent others from being injured. In the

Restatement of the Law In American jurisprudence, the ''Restatements of the Law'' are a set of treatises on legal subjects that seek to inform judges and lawyers about general principles of common law. There are now four series of ''Restatements'', all published by the ...

2d, Torts 2d, the term has been abandoned in favor of the phrase "inherently dangerous activity."

Categories of ultrahazardous activity

Several categories of activities are commonly recognized as being inherently hazardous; those who engage in them are subject to strict liability. These include: *Transportation, storage, and use of

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

and other

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

*Transportation, storage, and use of

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...

materials *Transportation, storage, and use of certain

hazardous chemicals Dangerous goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that when transported are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabi ...

*Keeping of

wild animals Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted fo ...

(i.e. animals that are not normally domesticated in that area) **Note that in this context, "domesticated" does not merely refer to animals that are commonly bred and raised in captivity, such as

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

s. *Keeping of

domesticated animals This page gives a list of domesticated animals, also including a list of animals which are or may be currently undergoing the process of domestication and animals that have an extensive relationship with humans beyond simple predation. This includ ...

that have a ''known propensity'' for dangerous behavior (e.g. keeping a

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

that has attacked people before) Someone who is injured by one of these inherently hazardous activities while

trespassing Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels, and trespass to land. Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, ...

on the

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

of the person engaged in the activity is barred from suing under a strict liability theory. Instead, they must prove that the property owner was

negligent Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as a ...

. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, this area of law is governed by the rule established in ''

Rylands v Fletcher ''Rylands v Fletcher'' (1868) LR 3 HL 330 is a leading decision by the House of Lords which established a new area of English tort law. It established the rule that one's non-natural use of their land, which leads to another's land being damaged ...

''.

Determining if an activity is ultrahazardous

Factors determining an activity is ultrahazardous:See, e.g. ''Langan v. Valicopters, Inc.'' (1977) #The relative possibility of harm. #The level of seriousness of potential harm. #The level of activitymost persons would not regularly engage in ultrahazardous activities. #Whether decreasing the possibility of harm requires exceptional measures of caution. #Whether the risk of the activity outweighs its social value. #Inappropriateness of the activity in the area where it is engaged in.

References

Tort law {{law-term-stub