Johnson v. City of St. Charles

The appellant, City of St. Charles, operated an electric plant with poles and wires extending along a much traveled public highway north from the city. On Monday, September 23, 1912, appellee’s intestate, Walter Johnson, a boy ten years old, was walking along that highway at a point within a mile of the business part of the city with Nils Nelson, a boy about twelve years old. There had been a severe storm of the previous Friday, and one of the electric wires was broken and hanging with the end lying on the ground inside the field adjoining the public highway. Walter ran to the side of the…