Mellace v. John P. Squire Co.

These are nine actions of tort in which the plaintiffs seek to recover damages for personal injuries which they allege were received by them, owing to the negligence of the defendant, from eating unwholesome food which one of the plaintiffs had purchased from a retail dealer to whom the food had been sold by the defendant.

The cases were tried together in the Superior Court before a jury. At the close of the evidence the judge directed a verdict for the defendant in each case and reported the cases to this court on a stipulation of the parties that, if the direction of verdicts for the…