Robert E. Cooper and Mariann Pogge, Trustee of the Bankruptcy Estate of Robert E. Cooper v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

TERENCE T. EVANS, Circuit Judge.

The question before us is whether, prior to its recent demise in the Illinois Legislature, the Illinois Structural Work Act covered Robert Cooper when he fell in a muddy ditch near a construction site.

On July 7, 1992, Cooper was carrying three or four 4-inch-square covers.for electrical boxes to the site of the construction of a Wal-Mart store near Macomb, Illinois. To reach the site he had to cross a ditch which was about 6 feet deep with an 8-foot incline. At the lowest portion of the ditch two 2-by-12 planks had been laid. Along the incline there were…