Johnston v. Industrial Commission

On December 4, 1953, the plaintiff, Charles Johnston, then forty-eight years of age, a sewer worker for the city of Eau Claire, who had been so employed for two and one-half years up to that time, was assisting a fellow workman in the cleaning of a city sewer. After the work inside the manhole was completed, Johnston straddled the manhole, bent his body forward, and with a pick attempted to pull the cover (which weighed about 100 to 150 pounds and was lying about two or three feet away) over the hole. The weather was at freezing temperature, the ground was slippery, and the cover would not…