Styles v. Village of Decatur

The plaintiff, a married woman, recovered a verdict and judgment of $750 against the defendant village by way of recompense for an injury suffered through a fall occasioned by a loose board in a sidewalk. The defendant has appealed. The accident is said to have happened in the evening after dark. She was walking with two of her children, when she was tripped by the board, which flew up in front of her as one of the children stepped upon its end, outside of the stringer. There was evidence tending to show that the walk was old, and that the boards had been loose for a long time. The plaintiff…