An ultrahazardous activity in the

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

torts A tort is a civil wrong, other than breach of contract, 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 c ...

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. Und ...

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 German ...

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 exp ...

*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 conside ...

materials *Transportation, storage, and use of certain

hazardous chemicals A hazard is a potential source of harm. Substances, events, or circumstances can constitute hazards when their nature would potentially allow them to cause damage to health, life, property, or any other interest of value. The probability of that ...

*Keeping of

wild animals Wildlife refers to undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also ...

(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, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus ''Alligator'' of the Family (biology), family Alligatoridae in the Order (biology), order Crocodilia. The two Extant taxon, extant species are the American alligator (''A. mis ...

s. *Keeping of

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

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 gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

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

trespassing Trespass to land, also called trespass to realty or trespass to real property, or sometimes simply trespass, is a common law tort or a crime that is committed when an individual or the object of an individual intentionally (or, in Australia, ...

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, re ...

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 care expected to be exercised in similar circumstances. Within the scope of tort law, negligence pertains to harm caused by the violation of a duty of care through a negl ...

. 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, 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 Judicial functions of the House of Lords, 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, w ...

''.

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