Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Equipment Depot, LTD
Two forklift safety items affirmed after fatal accident
An Equipment Depot field technician died after a Hyster forklift rolled and pinned him against his service truck. The judge found the lockout/tagout standard applicable because the service call included authorized repairs, but concluded that Equipment Depot's combined formal, apprenticeship, and…
Aggrecon Concrete, Inc., and its successors
Late contest dismissed after the owner signed for the citation but never opened it
Aggrecon Concrete installed sewer and water lines at a project in Donna, Texas. OSHA inspected the site and mailed citations by certified mail, which the company president signed for on May 19, 2000. The company did not file its contest until August 24, 2000, well past the 15-day deadline, so the…
Stevens Construction Corp.
Roofing citation vacated, fall-protection plan supervision violation affirmed
Stevens Construction was installing roof trusses and sheathing on a wood-frame apartment project in Racine, Wisconsin. OSHA cited the company for unprotected residential roofing work and for failing to place its alternative fall-protection plan under a competent person's supervision. The judge…
Kellogg, Brown & Root
Electrical citation vacated because host company controlled the maintenance crew and equipment
Kellogg, Brown & Root supplied maintenance employees to an Occidental Chemical plant in Ingleside, Texas. During a turnaround, a temporary electrical helper opened an unlocked energized switchgear cabinet and was shocked and severely injured. OSHA cited KBR for failing to keep an enclosure…
Rapid Masonry Company, and its successors
Scaffold access and fall-protection violations affirmed, penalties reduced to $600
Rapid Masonry employees were cutting and laying masonry block from scaffolding at a Lewisville, Texas, construction site. An OSHA officer saw one employee climb scaffold cross braces instead of using a ladder about 50 feet away and saw another employee working beside an open scaffold edge about 18…
Commercial Newspaper Service, and its successors
Admitted safety violations affirmed, penalties reduced to $460
Commercial Newspaper Service published athletic posters at a small Meridian, Idaho, facility. The company withdrew its contest to violations involving emergency exit lighting, flammable-liquid and combustible storage, lockout procedures, electrical equipment and wiring, and injury-recordkeeping…
Idaho Trout Processors, Co.
Hatchery guardrail and processing-machine items vacated, lockout item affirmed
Idaho Trout Processors operated a trout hatchery and a nearby fish-processing plant in Buhl, Idaho. OSHA cited unguarded catwalks over fish runs, but the judge found the hatchery was a separate agricultural establishment and that the general-industry walking-surface standard did not apply. He also…
Nova Fedrick/AJV, and its successors
Trencher-training citation vacated, vehicle item affirmed without penalty
Nova Fedrick/AJV was installing a fuel pipeline at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. An employee working close to a high-speed trencher was pulled into its cutting mechanism and killed. OSHA alleged that employees had not been instructed to recognize and avoid the hazards of working near the…
Raytheon Constructors, Inc., and its successors
Medical, eye-protection, electrical, and fall items are vacated
Raytheon was building a chemical-weapons disposal incinerator at the Umatilla Army Chemical Depot in Oregon. After an unknown chemical exposure sickened workers, OSHA cited the company for inadequate access to medical advice, but the judge found that qualified emergency medical technicians were…
Maersk Stevedoring Co.
Unguarded hatch violation affirmed, penalty cut
Maersk Stevedoring performed longshoring work aboard the Maersk San Antonio in Long Beach, California. An OSHA inspector saw a walking boss without fall protection near the edge of an open hatch where a fall of 16 to 20 feet was possible. The judge rejected Maersk's argument that OSHA had withdrawn…
Delta T Construction Co., Inc.
Roof-cover and training-record violations affirmed
Delta T Construction was an insulation contractor working on a cold-storage warehouse roof. A temporary employee removed an unsecured roof-hole cover while collecting scrap, stepped into the opening, and fell 31 feet in a fatal accident. The judge held that Delta controlled the work environment and…
Mac Construction
Fall-protection case settled for $1,100
Mac Construction performed construction work in Wisconsin. OSHA cited the company for inadequate jobsite inspections, insufficient safety training, employees working more than 25 feet above a lower surface without fall protection, and employees using aerial lifts without personal fall-arrest…
Quad Manufacturing Corp.
Failure-to-abate case settled for $6,000 over 24 months
Quad Manufacturing operated a Wisconsin machine shop where an OSHA follow-up inspection found chain slings without readable identification, missing sling-inspection records, and improperly labeled chemical containers. The proposed failure-to-abate penalties totaled $60,000, while Quad still owed…
New Age International
Scaffold violations affirmed with reduced penalties totaling $825
New Age International performed masonry and stucco work at a San Antonio U-Haul project where two workers used an incompletely planked rolling scaffold without proper access or full guardrails. New Age argued that the workers belonged to an independent subcontractor, but Judge Stanley M. Schwartz…
Accu-Rate Roofing Co.
Four roofing safety items affirmed for a $1,200 penalty
OSHA observed an Accu-Rate Roofing employee shingling a steep roof about 13 feet above the ground without fall protection. The access ladder was not tied off, did not extend three feet above the roof edge, and left the employee without a secure handhold when stepping onto the roof. The employee…
Malu Construction Co., and its successors
Jury-rigged scaffold items affirmed for $8,000
Malu called its framing workers independent subcontractors, but it supplied their scaffold and safety equipment, assigned their work, provided training, and retained authority to stop work. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz therefore treated them as Malu employees under the common-law control test. OSHA…
Texas A.C.A., Inc., and its successors
Scaffold citations vacated for foreman misconduct
Texas A.C.A. employees performed stucco work from an incomplete scaffold with missing bracing, incomplete planking, unstable supports, unsafe access, and inadequate fall protection. The foreman knew the crew was assigned to roof work and that the scaffold was unfinished, but moved them onto it…
Equipment Holding, Inc., and its successors
Three longshoring crane violations affirmed
Equipment Holding leased cranes and operators for longshoring work at the Port of Houston. After an accident involving one of its cranes, OSHA cited missing or incomplete load information, an excess counterweight, the absence of a load-indicating device, and inadequate maritime certification. Judge…
TraCorp Construction and its successors
Crane-rope and suspended-load violations affirmed
TraCorp's crew was erecting a building when a hoist cable broke and a falling steel truss killed an employee working beneath it. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz found that TraCorp was the employer because it assigned and paid the crew, supplied most tools, and controlled the work. The wire rope showed…
Plumb Square & Lovell, and its successors
Roof-edge violation affirmed but electrical and skylight items vacated
Plumb Square & Lovell employees framed a roof about 15 feet above the ground without fall protection. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz affirmed that serious violation even though the contractor mistakenly believed California's 15-foot rule governed the federal worksite. He reduced the penalty to $150…
Specialized Grading Enterprises, Inc.
Attorney fees awarded for unsupported trench items
Specialized Grading sought fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act after prevailing on four trench citation items. Those items arose from an employee's brief, unauthorized entry into an unprotected trench while working alone. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz held that the Secretary's litigation…
Don Brown Logging & Avery Logging Co., Inc.
Matched tree-felling backcuts violated logging rule
Don Brown Logging and Avery Logging trained fallers to make backcuts level with the horizontal facecut when using the Humboldt felling method. OSHA's logging standard required the backcut to be above the facecut to create a platform intended to reduce tree kickback. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz held…
Christie Constructors, Inc.
Barge safety citations produce $2,750 penalty
Christie Constructors performed bridge construction from two connected barges on the Columbia River. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz held that federal OSHA retained jurisdiction over non-maritime construction on vessels in navigable waters despite Washington's state plan. He affirmed serious violations…
Foss Maritime
Eyewash and walkway citations vacated
At Foss Maritime's repair facility, OSHA found a clogged eyewash near a caustic-soda parts tank and a yacht-access walkway without midrails. A working water hose was immediately beside the caustic tank, and Judge Stanley M. Schwartz found that the Secretary did not prove the hose was unsuitable for…
M & M Road Recycle, Inc.
$5,000 in attorney fees awarded for one duplicative citation under the EAJA
After largely defeating OSHA's citations in an earlier case, M & M Road Recycle, Inc. asked for its attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which lets small employers recover costs when the government's position was not substantially justified. In the underlying case, the judge had…
McKie Ford
Willful conveyor hazard affirmed with a $20,000 penalty
McKie Ford operated an automobile dealership where employees routinely rode a vertical reciprocating conveyor designed only for freight. An employee was killed when his head was caught between the second-floor landing and the ceiling of the unguarded conveyor. The judge found the hazard recognized…
Louis A. Dierzen d/b/a Dierzen Welding & Machine Company, Dierzen Machine Company, and Dierzen Trailer Corporation
Failure-to-abate and repeat spray-area violations affirmed by default
Dierzen ran a welding and machine shop in Newark, Illinois with about 12 employees. In March 1997, OSHA conducted a follow-up inspection to check whether earlier, uncontested violations had been fixed. The inspector found that explosion-proof electrical equipment for the paint spray area had been…
Olympia Drywall Company
Stairway and landing guardrail violations affirmed, $400 penalty
Olympia Drywall was a sheetrock subcontractor at a construction site in Austin, Texas. During an October 1996 inspection, OSHA found that the stairways its workers used to reach the second and third floors of a building lacked stairrails on one or both sides and had completely unguarded landings…
A & K Construction Co., Inc.
Unprotected trench draws an affirmed serious cave-in citation
A & K Construction Co., Inc. was installing a water system in Island Lake, Illinois. On May 27, 1997, an OSHA compliance officer saw an A & K employee working as the bottom man in an open trench about 7.5 feet deep with no sloping, shoring, or trench box. OSHA cited a serious violation of the…
A.D. Willis Company, Inc.
Roofing fall-protection citation vacated for failure of proof
A.D. Willis Company, Inc. was doing roofing work on an HEB store in Midland, Texas. An OSHA compliance officer arriving around 9:15 a.m. saw and videotaped two Willis employees working at the edge of the roughly 30-foot-high roof with no visible fall protection. He did not go onto the roof until…
Daniel A. Mickelsen, an Individual, d/b/a M-L Masonry
Unguarded scaffold item affirmed
M-L Masonry removed scaffold guardrails while lowering a work platform about 16 feet above the ground. The judge found that employees on the platform were exposed to a fall hazard and that the guardrail requirement continued to apply during lowering and dismantling unless compliance became…
G-MAC Construction Company, Inc.
Willful scaffold citations reduced to serious, penalties cut sharply
G-MAC Construction Company, Inc. was the stucco subcontractor on a Comfort Inn project in Omaha, Nebraska, and in turn subcontracted the work to Eucardo Molina, whose crew worked from a 40-foot scaffold with no guardrails and climbed the frame to get on it. G-MAC argued Molina was an independent…
McCarson's Quality Covering
Roofing safety violations affirmed
McCarson's Quality Covering used employees to replace a residential roof near an energized service line. OSHA found that the ladder-jack scaffold was about 12 inches from the unguarded power line, employees had no conventional fall protection on the steep roof, and the employer lacked adequate…
Consolidated Concepts, Inc., Camden Development, Inc., Noconi Construction Corporation
Most citations vacated, one pump-jack scaffold item affirmed serious, $1,500
OSHA inspected a three-story apartment complex under construction in Corpus Christi, Texas, and issued serious citations to three companies at the site: Consolidated Concepts (CCI), Camden Development (the general contractor), and Noconi Construction. All three contested, the cases were…
Newell Recycling Company, Inc.
All nine lead-exposure citation items vacated after OSHA lost track of its own lab samples for five months
Newell Recycling processes scrap metal in Eagle Pass, Texas. In June 1994 OSHA watched two employees torch-cut refinery piping while wearing dust masks, and took air samples to measure lead exposure. OSHA then let the samples sit: the industrial hygienist did not follow up for five months, the lab…
Murphy Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Murphy Brothers Exposition
Failed Giant Wheel rope and missing sling inspections yield $10,000
Murphy Brothers Exposition was setting up a 90-foot carnival Ferris wheel in Dallas when a damaged wire rope failed, causing moving wheel components to kill two employees and seriously injure a third employee, whose leg was partially amputated. Administrative Law Judge Stanley M. Schwartz found…
LaForge & Budd Construction Co., Inc.
Two items affirmed by stipulation after remand
OSHA cited LaForge & Budd Construction Co., Inc. after inspecting an Oklahoma construction project. The Commission reversed an earlier ruling that had suppressed the inspection evidence and remanded the case for a hearing on the merits. The parties then stipulated that a nylon-sling item would be…
McDonald Masonry
Four scaffold-safety items affirmed as serious, $5,500
McDonald Masonry did masonry work at a jobsite in De Soto, Texas, where OSHA inspected in July 1993 and issued a serious citation. The company contested four scaffold-related items but its owner did not appear at the June 1994 hearing, so Administrative Law Judge Stanley M. Schwartz proceeded on…
Beall Construction, Inc., d/b/a Tiger Manufacturing
Settlement resolves two consolidated cases, $1,000 penalty
Beall Construction, Inc., doing business as Tiger Manufacturing in Dallas, Texas, faced OSHA citations in two separate cases covering welding, respirator, flammable-liquid, spray-finishing, and electrical safety standards. At a June 28, 1994 hearing, the parties used a short settlement discussion…
Patterson Drilling Company, Inc.
Bloodborne-pathogen citations vacated for an oil-field drilling crew
Patterson Drilling Company ran a horizontal drilling rig at a site south of Gonzales, Texas. OSHA inspected after a February 1993 accident in which falling equipment caused a fatal crushing injury to a worker. The agency issued a serious citation with eight items and an "other" citation with two…
West Texas Warehouse Company
Hazardous-waste-response items vacated
West Texas Warehouse leased part of a Lubbock warehouse to another company that stored hazardous-waste-labeled batteries. After some batteries caught fire, fire and state environmental officials asked West Texas to help move them because the tenant would not act. West Texas employees used gloves…
Forrest Electrical Services
Fan, live-wire, and posting items affirmed
Forrest Electrical Services was an electrical subcontractor on a medical-clinic project in Spring, Texas. A temporary foreman brought an inadequately guarded floor fan to the site, where it was available for use in an area employees passed through. The ALJ affirmed the fan item as serious because…
Ramzel-Texas Services, Inc.
Three electrical items affirmed during asbestos work
Ramzel-Texas Services performed asbestos removal at Lubbock High School in Texas. The ALJ rejected its challenge to the inspection because the school principal had control of the occupied school premises and validly consented to OSHA's entry. Two extension cords bypassed the company's GFCI panel…
Metal Recycling Company
Scrap-yard hazards yield mixed ruling and $400 penalty
OSHA inspected Metal Recycling Company's three-employee scrap-metal facility in El Paso, Texas, and issued a serious citation with multiple items. The judge affirmed serious violations involving unsecured access stairs, an exit leading into a blocked and fenced yard, obstructed aisles, hazardous…
Parmer Building Corporation
Aerial-lift rail violations affirmed for $1,000
Parmer Building Corporation performed steel erection at a large Texas construction project. An OSHA compliance officer observed two employees standing on the top and middle rails of an aerial-lift basket while connecting a girder about 52 feet above ground. The employees were also tied off to the…
Western Plains Construction
Unprotected trench violation affirmed
Western Plains Construction was installing storm sewer pipe in a trench in Tulsa, Oklahoma. OSHA found the south end of the trench about 9 feet 6 inches deep with vertical, unprotected walls. The company argued that the condition resulted from unpreventable misconduct by its superintendent, but the…
Mustang Plus
Post-hearing settlement approved, combined $2,000 penalty
Mustang Plus is a Dallas, Texas employer. After an OSHA inspection of its workplace, the Secretary issued a serious citation with eight items and a non-serious citation with three items. At the close of a hearing held on November 6, 1992, the parties reached a settlement resolving all issues. Under…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.