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The Rylands Vs. Fletcher Rule In West Virginia, Edmund C. Dickinson

West Virginia Law Review

The apparent tendency of recent legislation to recur to the early conception of liability regardless of fault has called attention again to that much discussed subject, and particularly to that manifestation of it which we call the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher. It is not the purpose of the writer to discuss the theoretical merits of that rule or to engage in any controversy as to its scope or utility. Assuming its existence and recognition in some jurisdictions, the purpose of this article is to analyze the West Virginia cases involving the doctrine with a view to ascertaining the extent …