John Rylands case in the law of tort Notes Bibliography John Rylands John Rylands (7 February 1801 – 11 December 1888) was an English entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the owner of the largest textile manufacturing concern in the United Kingdom, and Manchester's first multi-millionaire. After having learned to weave, Rylands became a small-scale manufacturer of hand-looms, while also working in the draper's shop which his father had opened in St Helens. He displayed a "precocious shrewdness" for retailing, and in partnership with his two elder brothers expanded into the wholesale trade. So successful were they that, in 1819, Rylands' father merged
Rylands v Fletcher principle, in "Losee v. Buchanan", "Brown v. Collins", and "Marshall v. Welwood" respectively. The Supreme Court of New Jersey, however, reversed "Welwood" in 1983 in "Department of Environmental Protection v. Ventron Corp". Many courts in the United States have attempted to use "Rylands" to justify absolute liability, which it was never intended to do; while absolute liability is where no defence is applicable, in "Rylands" itself Lord Cairns accepted that there were some situations where the case should not be applied. In Australia, the principles of "Rylands v Fletcher" were "killed off" by the High Court of Australia in "Burnie