| Venue: | Privy Council |
| Facts: | The Wagon Mound is taking on bunkering oil, and spills a lot of it. The ship takes off, not cleaning up at all. There's some welding done by the wharf owners. Three days later, sparks or some such ignite the oil. Conflagration and damages. |
| Posture: | Judgment for plaintiffs at trial, New South Wales SC dismisses the defendants' appeal. Strangely, at trial the judge found that sailors couldn't reasonably be expected to know that furnace oil on the ocean's surface would burn. |
| Issue: | Are the Wagon Mound folks liable for the damages? |
| Holding: | No. Appeal is sustained and the suit is dismissed. |
| Rule: | The damages must be of such a kind that a reasonable person would foresee them. |
| Reasoning: | People are only considered responsible for the probable consequences
of their acts. To demand more is too harsh.
Liability is based not on the tortious act, but on the consequences (i.e., no harm, no foul). If the harm is not reasonably foreseeable, there's no liability. |
| Dicta: | |