Stubbs v. City of Rochester

Facts

In 1910 the City of Rochester, under legislative authority, sold water to its inhabitants. It ran two systems. The Hemlock system carried drinking water from Hemlock lake. The Holly system carried water pumped from the Genesee river, for fire purposes in the business district. Sewage was discharged into the river above the pumping point. At the Brown street lift bridge, Y-shaped pipes joined the two systems, and a check valve was meant to keep the higher-pressure Holly water out of the Hemlock pipe. No check valve was in place. With the gates open, river water flowed into the Hemlock pipes and was supplied to consumers near the bridge as drinking water. Residents complained from June 1910 that the water was roily, dirty and foul-smelling. The water department began investigating only on October 2d, upwards of three months after many complaints. Stubbs, a machinist, worked in a factory about one block from the bridge. Its only water was Hemlock water, and he drank it from his own glass. He lived three miles away, where he also drank Hemlock water outside the infected district, and he did not leave the city that summer. He fell ill with typhoid fever on September 6, 1910, was in bed six weeks, and could not work for some twelve weeks.

Issues

1. Did Stubbs produce enough evidence for a jury to reasonably infer that his typhoid fever came from contaminated water supplied by the city?
2. Must a plaintiff rule out every other possible cause of his illness before a jury may find that a cause for which the defendant is responsible produced it?

Holding

Stubbs's evidence was enough to go to a jury. He did not have to exclude every other possible source of typhoid. The nonsuit was wrong, so the judgment is reversed and a new trial granted.