Inevitable accident:

An accident that cannot be avoided even after taking reasonable precautions.

1. Inevitable accident is an accident that could not be prevented using ordinary care and skill.
2. Inevitable does not mean completely unforeseeable or unavoidable but it means an accident
not avoidable by taking reasonable precautions
3. This defense is of very limited applicability and will apply to cases where the burden of
proving reasonable care is on the defendant
4. In negligence the burden of proving lack of care is on the plaintiff so the defense is largely
irrelevant.
5. Courts ask whether there is negligence, which covers this.
6. This defense is available when the event has its origin in some agency of man and not in
nature.
7. Inevitable accident is not applicable to strict liability.

ACT OF GOD:
An accident that is not foreseeable and cannot be prevented.
Natural causes without human intervention. The event is unforeseeable or even if it is
foreseeable, it cannot be prevented.
Act of God has to be the direct cause of the injury.
Slater v Worthington’s cash store (1941)
Nichols v Marshland (1876)
Defendant constructed artificial lakes. Lakes leaked causing damage to the plaintiff’s bridge.
The Court held that defendant was not liable as the rainfall was extraordinary.

Greenock Corporation (1917)

Stream overflowed due to heavy rainfall. Not Act of God, as there was immediate human
intervention in nature.
Act of God and Statu