Bonder v. Commonwealth Edison Co., 168 Ill. App. 3d 80

Summary

The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed summary judgment for Commonwealth Edison Company and the property owners in a negligence action arising from a teenager's contact with an overhead power line. The court held that children aged 14 and 15 are, as a matter of law, capable of appreciating the danger posed by electrical power lines, so defendants owed no duty to warn or otherwise remedy the condition under Illinois's child-danger doctrine.

Holdings

1. Defendants owed no special duty to warn the fourteen-year-old plaintiff or otherwise remedy the danger because boys of his age and experience are, as a matter of law, deemed capable of appreciating the danger of contacting power lines.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defendants owed a special duty to warn or protect a fourteen-year-old plaintiff from the danger posed by overhead power lines under Illinois's child-danger doctrine.
2. Whether summary judgment was proper on the plaintiff's negligence counts where the power lines presented an open and obvious danger that boys of the plaintiff's age and experience were legally presumed capable of appreciating.

Disposition

affirmed