Luis Plata v. Eureka Locker, Inc.

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

Plata, a butcher employed by Eureka Locker, a meat-processing company, sued Eureka under both state law and federal law (42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.), charging it with having fired him in retaliation for his having filed a worker’s compensation claim against the company. He claimed that Scott Bittner, the company’s owner, had told him he was “done” after he told Bitt-ner that he intended to file a worker’s compensation claim.

Bittner died suddenly while the case was in its early stages. That left Plata the only witness to the alleged conversation. Eureka argued to the…