The 1942 Coconut Grove fire yielded about $160 per victim despite 491 deaths

Evidence

In 1942, a disastrous fire in a nightclub, the Coconut Grove, in Boston, killed 491 people. The defendant went bankrupt. The yield was about $160 per victim. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3847

Categorization

• CANDY: A striking single data point about tort law’s inadequacy in the mid-century — good for casual conversation.