Stubbs v. City of Rochester

The City of Rochester (defendant) maintained separate drinking-water and firefighting water systems that inadvertently intermingled in May 1910, contaminating the drinking-water system with sewage, though the contamination wasn't discovered until October 1910. Stubbs (plaintiff) worked one block from the contamination site, drank the water daily, never left the city that summer, and contracted typhoid fever in September 1910; he sued the city for negligence, presenting nearly sixty witnesses from the area who also drank the water and got typhoid, along with expert testimony attributing the local outbreak, including his own illness, to the contaminated water. The trial court granted a nonsuit dismissing Stubbs's claim before it reached the jury, and the Appellate Division affirmed.