A Civil Action
E170567
A Civil Action is a 1995 non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr, later adapted into a film, that chronicles a landmark environmental pollution lawsuit in Woburn, Massachusetts.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| A Civil Action (film) | 8 |
| A Civil Action (book) | 7 |
| A Civil Action canonical | 6 |
| book "A Civil Action" | 1 |
| depicted in Jonathan Harr’s nonfiction book "A Civil Action" | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1496385 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Civil Action Context triple: [Aberjona River, mentionedIn, A Civil Action]
-
A.
The Firm
The Firm was a 1990s American hip hop supergroup best known for its members Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature and their collaborative album "The Album."
-
B.
The Verdict
The Verdict is a critically acclaimed 1982 courtroom drama film starring Paul Newman as a down-and-out lawyer seeking redemption through a medical malpractice case.
-
C.
Presumed Innocent
Presumed Innocent is a 1990 legal thriller film, based on Scott Turow’s novel, about a prosecutor accused of murdering his colleague and former lover.
-
D.
Frontiers of Justice
Frontiers of Justice is a philosophical work by Martha Nussbaum that extends theories of justice to address the rights and moral standing of people with disabilities, non-human animals, and citizens of other nations.
-
E.
The Accused
The Accused is a 1988 American legal drama film that powerfully examines sexual assault and victim-blaming, featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Jodie Foster.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Civil Action Target entity description: A Civil Action is a 1995 non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr, later adapted into a film, that chronicles a landmark environmental pollution lawsuit in Woburn, Massachusetts.
-
A.
The Firm
The Firm was a 1990s American hip hop supergroup best known for its members Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature and their collaborative album "The Album."
-
B.
The Verdict
The Verdict is a critically acclaimed 1982 courtroom drama film starring Paul Newman as a down-and-out lawyer seeking redemption through a medical malpractice case.
-
C.
Presumed Innocent
Presumed Innocent is a 1990 legal thriller film, based on Scott Turow’s novel, about a prosecutor accused of murdering his colleague and former lover.
-
D.
Frontiers of Justice
Frontiers of Justice is a philosophical work by Martha Nussbaum that extends theories of justice to address the rights and moral standing of people with disabilities, non-human animals, and citizens of other nations.
-
E.
The Accused
The Accused is a 1988 American legal drama film that powerfully examines sexual assault and victim-blaming, featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Jodie Foster.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
feature film
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ |
| adaptedAs |
A Civil Action (film)
ⓘ
linked to:
A Civil Action
|
| author | Jonathan Harr ⓘ |
| awarded |
National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
ⓘ
linked to:
National Book Critics Circle Award
|
| awardYear | 1995 ⓘ |
| basedOn | A Civil Action ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| director | Steven Zaillian ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
alleged link between pollution and leukemia cases
ⓘ
civil lawsuit over groundwater contamination ⓘ trichloroethylene contamination ⓘ |
| genre |
legal literature
ⓘ
non-fiction ⓘ true crime ⓘ |
| hasISBN | 9780394563497 ⓘ |
| includedIn | environmental law reading lists ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalCaseInvolved | Anderson v. Cryovac ⓘ |
| literaryForm | narrative non-fiction ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Jan Schlichtmann ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| notableFor |
detailed depiction of U.S. civil litigation process
ⓘ
influencing public awareness of environmental law ⓘ |
| placeOfPublication | New York City ⓘ |
| portrays |
complexities of environmental litigation
ⓘ
corporate defendants accused of pollution ⓘ plaintiffs’ families in Woburn leukemia cluster ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 1995 ⓘ |
| publisher | Random House ⓘ |
| releaseDate | 1998 ⓘ |
| settingLocation | Woburn, Massachusetts ⓘ |
| starring |
John Travolta
ⓘ
Robert Duvall ⓘ William H. Macy ⓘ |
| subject |
Woburn, Massachusetts contamination case
ⓘ
environmental pollution ⓘ toxic tort litigation ⓘ |
| targetAudience | general adult readership ⓘ |
| theme |
financial risks of contingency-fee litigation
ⓘ
limits of the legal system in addressing environmental harm ⓘ struggle between individuals and corporations ⓘ |
| timePeriodDescribed |
1970s
ⓘ
1980s ⓘ |
| usedAs |
case study in environmental studies courses
ⓘ
case study in law schools ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: A Civil Action Description of subject: A Civil Action is a 1995 non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr, later adapted into a film, that chronicles a landmark environmental pollution lawsuit in Woburn, Massachusetts.
Referenced by (23)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
subject linked to:
A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
Anderson v. Cryovac
→
inPopularCulture
→
depicted in Jonathan Harr’s nonfiction book "A Civil Action"
ⓘ
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action
linked to: A Civil Action