Federal Agency Decisions
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), and environmental appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Secretary of Labor v. Mettiki Coal Corporation
Safeguard validity and collateral estoppel remanded
Mettiki Coal Corporation was cited after an unattended personnel carrier was parked on an inclined track without a stopblock, derail, or chain-type car hold. The administrative law judge vacated the citation and safeguard and held that the Secretary was barred from relitigating the safeguard's…
Secretary of Labor v. Southern Ohio Coal Company
Safeguard validity remanded for mine-specific findings
Southern Ohio Coal Company received an order of withdrawal after an inspector found that a section of the Martinka No. 1 Mine's supply track lacked shelter holes at the intervals required by a mine safeguard. The administrative law judge vacated the order because the Secretary had not shown that…
BethEnergy Mines, Inc.
Safeguard ruling partly affirmed and remanded
BethEnergy Mines contested citations alleging that two belt-conveyor travelways at its underground Mine No. 60 lacked the required 24 inches of clear space. The ALJ had found the safeguard valid because it followed a published safeguard criterion and had affirmed the citations as significant and…
Secretary of Labor v. Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company
Safeguard validity remanded for mine-specific findings
Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company received two citations after miners were observed leaving an elevator with a portable dolly, in alleged violation of a notice to provide safeguard at the Greenwich Collieries No. 2 Mine. The administrative law judge vacated the citations because the safeguard…
Old Ben Coal Company
Civil penalty settlement approved
Old Ben Coal Company was the respondent in a civil penalty proceeding under the Mine Act. The parties proposed reducing a $500 penalty to $250 and dismissing related cases after the case was severed from two other dockets. Judge Avram Weisberger found the settlement appropriate under the statutory…
Old Ben Coal Company
Inspection-access citation and order vacated
Old Ben Coal Company was cited and ordered to abate after it declined to provide an MSHA inspector with underground transportation during a quarterly inspection. The company provided elevator access and the inspector continued inspecting on foot, but MSHA alleged that the refusal impeded the…
Secretary of Labor v. Green River Coal Company, Inc.
Safeguard did not cover a different travelway obstruction
Green River Coal Company received a citation after a roof fall left slippery rock blocking part of a conveyor-belt travelway at its No. 9 Mine. The Secretary argued that a safeguard requiring a 24-inch travelway covered any physical obstruction, but the administrative law judge found that the…
T & T Fuels Incorporated
Settlement partly approved, S&S reduction denied
T & T Fuels proposed a settlement covering four citations, including a request to reduce one citation from significant and substantial to non-S&S, lower the negligence allegation, and reduce the penalty to $63. Judge William Fauver denied the requested S&S reduction because the motion did not show…
Secretary of Labor v. S & H Mining, Incorporated
Imminent-danger order vacated, citation affirmed
S & H Mining operated an underground coal mine where high-voltage power lines were measured at heights below 15 feet above ground. The judge found that the condition created a substantial possibility of serious injury because the area was accessible to the public and electrical examiners, but the…
Jim Walter Resources, Inc.
Respirable-dust citation affirmed
Jim Walter Resources was cited after respirable-dust samples from a longwall mining unit averaged 2.6 milligrams per cubic meter, above the 2.0 milligrams per cubic meter limit in the cited standard. The company did not dispute the sample results but challenged MSHA's direction to change the…
The Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Co-York CNYN Complex
One citation affirmed, five modified
The Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company contested six significant-and-substantial citations issued at the York Canyon Underground Mine. The judge affirmed the citation for a Caterpillar scraper that lacked an adequate automatic backup alarm and assessed the proposed $112 penalty. The parties…
Clifford Meek v. Essroc Corporation
Discrimination found, employment ordered
Clifford Meek alleged that Essroc Corporation refused to employ him at a cement grinding plant because he had raised safety concerns with an MSHA inspector. The judge found that Essroc was a successor to the prior operator and that the prior management officials who recommended against hiring Meek…
Danaco Exploration International
Three electrical citations affirmed, two vacated
Danaco Exploration International was cited for electrical safety conditions at its quarry, including oversized fuses, an undersized starter, a missing cover plate, and allegedly insufficient conductors. Judge John J. Morris affirmed the two citations for oversized fuses and the citation for the…
Joshua Industries, Incorporated
Back pay ordered after default
Nicholas Ramirez brought a discrimination proceeding against Joshua Industries, Incorporated. The respondent had previously been held in default. Judge Gary Melick directed Joshua Industries to pay Ramirez $3,123.62 in back pay plus interest within 30 days, unless it had already done so. The order…
U.S. Steel Mining Company, Incorporated
Discrimination complaint withdrawn and dismissed
The United Mine Workers of America filed a discrimination proceeding on behalf of Dennis M. Blouir against U.S. Steel Mining Company, Incorporated. The complainant stated that he intended to withdraw the complaint. Judge Avram Weisberger dismissed the case under 29 C.F.R. § 2700.11. The order does…
F.M.C. Gold Company, Inc.
OSHA citations withdrawn because MSHA had jurisdiction
F.M.C. Gold used an independent drilling contractor to extract core samples at a remote gold exploration site in Idaho. A contractor's fuel truck rolled downhill and pinned an F.M.C. employee against the drill rig, causing fatal injuries. OSHA cited F.M.C. for failing to chock or turn vehicle…
Wyman-Gordon Company
Access ordered to medical and workplace health records
The widows of two former Wyman-Gordon aircraft-parts employees authorized a law firm to request exposure records, medical records, and workplace health analyses concerning their late husbands. The Commission held that legal representatives of deceased employees could exercise record-access rights…
IMC Fertilizer, Inc.
Discrimination complaint dismissed after work refusal
John Van Allen, an electrician at IMC Fertilizer's Noralyn Mine and Mill, refused to install a NEMA Type 1 junction box in an area he believed was wet and unsafe. He was suspended for 35 hours, and the Secretary of Labor brought a Mine Act discrimination complaint on his behalf. Judge Gary Melick…
Old Ben Coal Company
Citations split, settlements approved, and $690 penalty ordered
Old Ben Coal Company faced 13 consolidated civil penalty dockets involving its Nos. 24, 25, and 26 mines. Judge Avram Weisberger found some violations, amended several citations to remove significant-and-substantial findings, vacated other citations, and dismissed three dockets. He also approved…
ARA Living Centers of Texas, Inc.
Chemical training required beyond labels and safety data sheets
ARA Living Centers operated Oak Manor Nursing Home, where employees used cleaning products containing phosphoric acid and ethyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride. The nursing home had product labels and material safety data sheets, but the OSHA inspector testified without contradiction that…
Jefferson Smurfit Corporation
Feeder-belt item vacated for lack of employee exposure
Jefferson Smurfit manufactured cardboard boxes using a straight-line gluer with exposed nip points on a product-feeding belt and on separate power-transmission belts. The Commission vacated the item concerning the feeder belt because OSHA did not prove that employees were exposed to a…
Carabetta Enterprises, Inc.
Willful steel-erection fall violation affirmed
Three Carabetta employees erected structural steel about 28 to 30 feet above the nearest floor without a temporary floor, safety net, or other fall protection. Carabetta argued that its three-story construction modules made an intermediate floor impracticable and that the standard unfairly treated…
L. Kenneth Teel, President of California Lightweight Pumice, Inc.
Mine-condition citations affirmed and penalties assessed
The Secretary of Labor charged L. Kenneth Teel and George W. Weinbeck with individual liability for mine safety violations at California Lightweight Pumice's Battle Mountain Mine. Judge John J. Morris found that Teel knowingly authorized violations involving unsafe access, unstable pit walls, loose…
Conco-Western Stone Company
Unsafe truck citations affirmed with one S&S finding removed
Conco-Western Stone Company and its superintendent, Ross Campbell, were cited over a quarry truck with inoperative brakes and other safety defects. Judge Roy J. Maurer found violations involving the truck's condition and affirmed the citations, but removed the significant-and-substantial…
Mosser Construction Company
Crane gear violation affirmed after storage-area exposure
A Mosser crane operator regularly entered a confined crane compartment containing moving gears, fuel gauges, tools, oils, and other stored materials. After completing lubrication work and restarting the gears, a rag and then his hand became entangled, severing his hand. The Commission held that the…
Kerr-McGee Coal Corporation
Miners' representative designation must be posted
Kerr-McGee Coal Corporation refused to post a designation naming United Mine Workers representatives for miners at its Jacobs Ranch Mine. Judge Michael A. Lasher, Jr. held that Mine Act representative-of-miners rules do not require a union to be certified for collective bargaining before it can…
Zeigler Coal Company
One citation vacated and one settled
Zeigler Coal Company faced two civil penalty proceedings involving its Murdock and Spartan Mines. Judge George A. Koutras vacated a citation alleging that a continuous miner's emergency-stop foot switch was not maintained in safe operating condition because MSHA determined that the cited standard…
Mustang Fuels Corporation
Civil penalty settlement approved
Mustang Fuels Corporation faced a civil penalty proceeding under the Mine Act. The parties asked the judge to approve a settlement and dismiss the case. Judge Roy J. Maurer approved a reduction of the proposed penalty from $450 to $175 and ordered Mustang Fuels to pay $175 within 30 days. The…
Peabody Coal Company
Settlement approved with penalty reduced to $600
Peabody Coal Company was cited in a civil penalty proceeding involving Mine No. 10. The Secretary of Labor asked the judge to approve a settlement under Sections 105(d) and 110(i) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act. Judge Gary Melick found the proposed settlement appropriate after…
South EAST Coal Company, Inc.
Settlement approved with reduced penalty and damages
South East Coal Company was the respondent in a discrimination proceeding brought by the Secretary of Labor on behalf of Charles Scott Howard II. The Secretary moved to approve a settlement and dismiss the case. Judge Gary Melick approved the settlement, which reduced the proposed civil penalty…
Arch of Kentucky, Incorporated
Discrimination complaint dismissed
Michael D. Burton alleged that Arch of Kentucky discriminated against him after he raised safety concerns about defective mantrip sanders and the availability of self-contained self-rescuers. He claimed that management later treated his dental absence, attendance records, counseling, and return to…
Consolidation Coal Company
Citation withdrawn and vacated
The Secretary of Labor asked to withdraw the petition in a civil penalty proceeding against Consolidation Coal Company after further analysis indicated that the cited standard had not been violated. Judge Gary Melick granted permission to withdraw the petition under 29 C.F.R. § 2700.11. The…
R & R Builders, Inc.
Safety-belt violation remains willful
R & R Builders was a drywall subcontractor cited for safety-program, training, safety-belt, guardrail, and ground-fault protection violations at a condominium project. The Commission affirmed the safety-program, training, safety-belt, and guardrail items, but reduced three of them from willful to a…
Wyoming Fuel Company
Settlement approved and contests dismissed
Wyoming Fuel Company contested four citations involving alleged deliberate tampering with dust filter media at its Golden Eagle Mine. The company denied deliberately altering the media but agreed to pay $5,200 in civil penalties, without admitting the allegations for purposes outside civil matters…
Lambert Coal Company
Settlement approved with $8,250 penalty
The Secretary alleged that Lambert Coal Company altered the weight of respirable dust samples submitted as part of its sampling requirements at five mines. The five dockets covered ten alleged violations of 30 C.F.R. § 70.209(b), and the operator denied deliberately tampering with or altering the…
Koch Carbon, Inc. - Koch Raven Division
Settlement approved with $960 penalty
Koch Carbon's Raven No. 1 Mine was involved in a civil penalty proceeding concerning an alleged violation of 30 C.F.R. § 71.209(b). The Secretary alleged that the operator altered the weight of a respirable dust sample, while the operator denied deliberately tampering with the dust filter media…
Thomas Lindstrom Company
Offsite safety data sheets were not readily accessible
Thomas Lindstrom Company was a structural steel erector whose foreman used oxygen and acetylene at a construction site. When OSHA requested the material safety data sheets for those chemicals, the foreman could not produce them because the sheets were kept at the company's central office, between…
Peavey Grain Company
Grain facility needed an effective alarm
Peavey Grain operated a grain-handling facility where a temporary employee suffocated after becoming buried in grain inside a storage building. OSHA cited Peavey's emergency action plan because it lacked provisions for rescue and medical duties and did not provide an employee alarm system. The…
CF & I Steel Corporation
Willfulness and penalty remanded
CF & I Steel was found to have violated the coke-oven-emissions respiratory protection standard after appellate courts upheld the Secretary of Labor's interpretation of the rule. The Tenth Circuit returned the case to the Commission because the remaining questions were whether the violation was…
Consolidation Coal Company
Citations affirmed and modified with $867 penalty
Consolidation Coal Company contested citations issued at its Arkwright No. 1 Mine. Judge Roy J. Maurer found that an unguarded trolley wire violation was significant and substantial, and that coal dust accumulations created a significant and substantial hazard. He found that a separate violation…
Dover Elevator Company
Unsecured oxygen cylinder did not meet the carrying exception
Dover Elevator left an oxygen cylinder unsecured for 15 to 30 minutes near an elevator shaft while employees tried to repair a hoist. The Commission rejected OSHA's view that a cylinder must be secured whenever it is not physically moving, recognizing that brief, necessary pauses during carrying…
El Dorado Chemical Company
Settlement approval denied for truck steering citation
El Dorado Chemical Company faced a civil penalty proceeding over a truck used to haul explosives. MSHA alleged that the truck's steering section was loose, creating a risk that the bolts could break and the driver could lose steering control. The Secretary proposed reducing the alleged…
Mendisco Mining
Default entered and $800 in penalties assessed
MSHA sought civil penalties against Mendisco Mining for four citations. The operator received notice of the hearing but did not appear, did not communicate its intentions, and repeatedly ignored orders and contact efforts. Judge Michael A. Lasher, Jr. entered the operator's default and assessed the…
Asarco, Incorporated
Two citations modified and four affirmed with $270 penalty
The Secretary sought penalties against Asarco for four violations at the Black Cloud Mine, Leadville Unit. The parties reached a settlement during the hearing. Judge Michael A. Lasher, Jr. modified two citations by changing the gravity designation from fatal to lost workdays or restricted duty…
Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company
Citations modified and affirmed with $397.25 penalty
Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company contested two citations at its York Canyon Surface Mine. The parties agreed to remove the significant-and-substantial designation from both citations and reduce the penalties to $80 and $317.25. Judge August F. Cetti found the proposed settlement reasonable…
Consolidation Coal Company
Settlement approved and citation modified
Consolidation Coal Company had a contest proceeding and a related civil penalty proceeding involving Arkwright No. 1 Mine. The parties settled three citations for the full proposed penalty of $667. They also agreed to modify Citation No. 3315925 from significant and substantial to non-S&S, find low…
Drummond Company
Unwarrantable-failure finding made after remand
The Commission remanded Drummond Company's consolidated contest proceedings for reconsideration of whether an accumulation violation resulted from unwarrantable failure. The Commission directed the Judge to consider Drummond's reason to know about the accumulations, its mitigation efforts, and…
Keith Sturgill v. South East Coal Company
Discrimination complaint dismissed after withdrawal
Keith Sturgill asked to withdraw his discrimination complaint against South East Coal Company. Judge Gary Melick granted permission to withdraw the complaint under 29 C.F.R. § 2700.11. The case was dismissed.
James N. Boyd v. Trojan Mining Company
Discrimination complaint dismissed after withdrawal
James N. Boyd asked to withdraw his discrimination complaint against Trojan Mining Company. Judge Gary Melick granted permission to withdraw the complaint under 29 C.F.R. § 2700.1. The case was dismissed, and the hearings scheduled for November 8, 1991, were cancelled.
Consolidation Coal Company
Citation outcomes split across roof support and ladder cases
Consolidation Coal was cited at the Humphrey No. 7 and Osage No. 3 mines for roof support, ladder access, and other conditions. Judge Avram Weisberger found that missing cribs violated the roof control plan but was not significant and substantial because the area would have been cribbed before…
Bally's Park Place Hotel & Casino
Work-product protection covered consultant test records
Bally's commissioned an outside consultant to test iodine emissions from a casino glass-washing machine after OSHA raised employee exposure concerns. The company's general counsel requested the testing in anticipation of litigation, and Bally's refused to give the resulting records to OSHA or an…
Mt. Adams Furniture Co.
Tribal enterprise remained subject to OSHA
Mt. Adams Furniture was an enterprise of the Yakima Indian tribe located on the Yakima reservation. An administrative law judge dismissed OSHA's citations because he concluded that applying the Occupational Safety and Health Act would interfere with treaty rights allowing the tribe to exclude…
Helen Mining Company
Temporary reinstatement ordered
The Secretary sought temporary reinstatement for Joseph A. Smith after Helen Mining Company discharged him. Smith had filed Mine Act safety complaints and several discrimination complaints, and the company said he was discharged for refusing a fireboss assignment. Judge Roy J. Maurer did not decide…
Kocher Coal Company
Amended settlement approved for $685.50
Kocher Coal Company faced three civil penalty proceedings. The ALJ had previously denied the parties' initial settlement motions, but the parties later filed amended motions with supporting evidence. Judge Gary Melick approved a $20 penalty for an allegation that the company failed to notify the…
Southern Ohio Coal Co.
Section 103(k) roof-fall order affirmed
Southern Ohio Coal challenged a section 103(k) order issued after a roof fall at the Martinka No. 1 Mine. The order stopped work in the affected longwall area while MSHA investigated whether the fall was above the roof-bolt anchorage and impeded passage. Judge George A. Koutras found that the…
Joseph Culp v. Mid-Continent Resources, Inc.
Discrimination settlement approved and paid
Joseph Culp brought a Mine Act discrimination complaint after Mid-Continent Resources terminated him following his refusal to work underground during a methane fire. He sought back pay for the period before his temporary reinstatement, but he later found other employment and no longer sought…
Ceco Corporation
General-duty citation withdrawn in settlement
Ceco Corporation was a concrete formwork contractor cited after OSHA inspected a parking-garage construction project. The item before the Commission alleged a serious general-duty-clause violation because employees rode forklift tines to reach an 11-foot scaffold. The parties entered a full…
Utah Power & Light Company
Imminent-danger withdrawal order vacated
Utah Power & Light operated large diesel scoops in the haulageways of its Cottonwood Mine. MSHA issued a section 107(a) withdrawal order after tests showed that scoop operators had serious blind spots, but the mine had also adopted lighting, vehicle, traffic, and operating procedures to reduce the…
Asamera Minerals (US) Incorporated
Settlement approved at $3,240
Asamera Minerals operated the Gooseberry Mine, where a miner died in a fall while replacing damaged timber dividers in a manway. MSHA issued two citations alleging violations of standards concerning fall protection and underground mine openings, with proposed penalties totaling $6,000. After the…
Mountain Coal Company, (Successor to West Elk Coal Company, Incorporated)
Citation vacated and case dismissed
Mountain Coal Company operated the Mount Gunnison No. 1 Mine and was cited after a flame arrestor on a Jeffrey ram-car had a measured opening. The judge considered whether the equipment was maintained in permissible condition under 30 C.F.R. § 75.503, whether the violation was significant and…
What these documents are
- The agencies: Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), and environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB). Each decision page names its agency.
- Commission and Board decisions: Rulings by the agency's highest review level (the Commission at OSHRC and FMSHRC, the Environmental Appeals Board at EPA). These are citable as precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by the agency's Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order that binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent: under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j) at OSHRC, and after the 40-day window of 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(1) at FMSHRC.
- 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 public release from the deciding agency, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.