Question:medium

Test of directness for determining remoteness of damage was laid down in:

Updated On: Jul 13, 2026
  • Wagon Mound 1
  • Wagon Mound 2
  • Re Polemis
  • Rylands v. Fletcher
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The Correct Option is C

Solution and Explanation

Remoteness of damage has a clear history, one test replaced another, so dating each case correctly is the quickest way to find the one that introduced the directness standard.

  1. Wagon Mound 1: this case is remembered for doing away with the directness approach, not creating it, the Privy Council here insisted that only foreseeable kinds of harm can be recovered, which was a deliberate departure from directness.
  2. Wagon Mound 2: this decision came after Wagon Mound 1 and sharpened the foreseeability standard by lowering the threshold of what counts as a foreseeable risk, it has no link to the directness test at all.
  3. Re Polemis: decided decades earlier, in 1921, this is where the court said a defendant answers for every consequence that follows directly from a negligent act, even one nobody could have predicted, as long as there was no break in the chain of causation. This if it's direct, it counts approach is the directness test named in the question.
  4. Rylands v. Fletcher: this earlier case is about liability for the escape of a dangerous thing kept on land, a completely separate area of tort law from how remoteness of damage is measured.

Placing the cases on a timeline shows Re Polemis came first with the directness rule, and the Wagon Mound cases came later specifically to displace it with foreseeability.

The correct answer is Re Polemis.

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