Citation

Spencer JR. Camb. Law J. 1983; 42(01): 65-84.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Cambridge University Law Society, Publisher Stevens and Sons)

DOI

10.1017/S0008197300109304

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Readers of A. P. Herbert's Misleading Cases will recall the fictitious decision in Haddock v. Thwaile, where the Court of Appeal extended strict liability under Rylands v. Fletcher to motor-cars on the highway, and--carried away on a tide of Luddite eloquence--revived and extended the law of deodand by ordering the unfortunate motorist's car to be destroyed. Nowadays it is almost forgotten that this story is nearly based on fact. Before the First World War, at the dawn of the motor age, the English courts came within a whisker of imposing strict liability upon the owner of a motor-car for all the damage which it causes in use.

Language: en