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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Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company
Related companies treated as one employer
Workers at an airport construction site were exposed to debris with protruding nails, unguarded floor holes, and unguarded elevated platforms. They were nominally employed by Bob McCaslin Anchor Company, while OSHA cited Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company. The judge treated the two corporations as…
Dravo Corporation
Settlement approved and crane item withdrawn
Dravo Corporation and the Secretary submitted a settlement agreement under which Dravo withdrew its notice of contest and the Secretary withdrew a nonserious crane item and its proposed $55 penalty for lack of supporting evidence. The judge approved the settlement and assessed $655 but did not…
United Engineers & Constructors, Inc.
Repeat rebar violation affirmed and two items vacated
At the Three Mile Island construction site, one employee stood untied on a crane girder about 225 feet above the floor while guiding another crane. Safety nets would have blocked the lift, and the Commission divided over whether a feasible safety-belt anchorage had been proved, leaving the…
Deering Milliken, Inc.; Alan B. Sibley Mill
Catwalk citation affirmed without penalty
A 20-foot catwalk about nine feet above a concrete floor had a rail on one side but no guardrail on the other. Pipes located up to two and one-half feet from the open edge left gaps through which an employee could fall, so they were not equivalent protection. The Commission affirmed the violation…
GTE Automatic Electric, Inc.
Emergency-wash item affirmed and drill-press item vacated
GTE Automatic Electric was cited for an employee handling materials near acid baths without eye protection, emergency showers and eye washes located 50 to 75 feet from plating tanks, paint residue in spray booths, and unguarded drill presses. The judge affirmed the eye-protection and emergency-wash…
Jamison Bedding, Inc.
Cotton-dust citations vacated
Air samples from Jamison Bedding's bale-opening and willow operations measured total dust well above the one-milligram limit for raw cotton dust. The judge vacated the exposure and control citations because the samples also contained vegetation, burlap, and other process dust, and the laboratory…
Colorado Fuel & Iron Steel Corp., a/k/a C.F. & I. Steel Corp.
Mixed steel-mill citations affirmed and vacated
OSHA issued 48 nonserious items at Colorado Fuel & Iron's Pueblo steel mill involving cranes, respirators, sanitation, welding, electrical equipment, access, housekeeping, and fall hazards. The judge affirmed many admitted or proved items, vacated others for insufficient proof or inapplicable…
C & H Erection Company, Inc.
Delayed citation-posting violation affirmed
C & H Erection received an OSHA citation on a Thursday but did not post it at the jobsite until the following Tuesday, after a compliance officer arrived for reinspection. The judge interpreted the requirement to post immediately as requiring diligent action with reasonable dispatch under the…
Tyler Refrigeration Division of Clark Equipment Company, Inc.
Employee notice required before dismissal
The Secretary moved to dismiss one citation item and its proposed $110 penalty after reinvestigation showed that Tyler Refrigeration had been in compliance. The judge granted the motion, but neither the motion nor the decision had been served on the union or posted for affected employees. The…
Dallas Hotel Company
Serious scaffold violation and $600 penalty affirmed
Dallas Hotel employees worked on narrow scaffold platforms 20 to 60 feet above the ground. The rear of the platforms lacked guardrails and toeboards, and cross braces were too far away to prevent a fall. One employee also worked above another, creating a falling-object hazard. The Commission…
B.F. Goodrich Company
Noise settlement approved and abatement extension motion denied
The settlement vacated a chemical-exposure item and its $80 penalty for lack of evidence, while affirming an occupational-noise item with a $60 penalty and a staged abatement plan. B.F. Goodrich later asked for two years after the Commission's final order to complete the cure-men abatement work…
Anchorage Plastering Company
Scaffold citations vacated for lack of commerce proof
OSHA cited alleged scaffold, hard-hat, and flammable-liquid violations while Anchorage Plastering employees applied stucco at an Alaska medical-center project. The judge did not reach the safety merits. He held that the Secretary failed to prove that the small plastering business affected…
Cox Brothers, Incorporated
Power-line and fall violations affirmed
A Cox Brothers foreman stood atop a 14-foot masonry wall without a safety belt or scaffold while inserting 13-foot reinforcing bars beneath an overhead power line. A bar contacted the line, and the foreman fell and died. The judge held that the company failed to inspect for the plainly visible…
Ames Crane & Rental Service, Inc.
Power-line clearance violation and $600 penalty affirmed
Ames Crane rented a crane with its own operator for work at an Iowa State University power plant. The crane operated between a doorway and energized transmission lines less than 10 feet away, and the load line became energized, killing another contractor's employee. Ames had given only general…
Continental Oil Company (Southern Facilities Terminal)
Tank-terminal fire citations vacated
A gasoline storage tank overflowed at Continental Oil's Chattanooga terminal, followed by a fire and explosion that killed the terminal manager and two employees at a neighboring facility. OSHA issued six citations involving drainage, diking, fire control, and the general duty clause. The…
Hammonds Construction, Inc.
Energized-line violation affirmed and penalty reduced
Hammonds Construction had a cold-line contract requiring power lines to be deenergized before work. Although the owner instructed the foreman to turn off all lines, the foreman sent two employees aloft above an energized 7,200-volt tap. A deenergized wire contacted the live line, killing one…
Buckley & Company, Inc.
Citations vacated after complaint deadline expired
A federal appeals court reversed the Commission's earlier dismissal of Buckley & Company's notice of contest. Because the Secretary had not filed a complaint after the case returned, the Commission gave the Secretary 20 days from receipt of its order to do so. The official release notes that no…
Feazell Construction Co.
Serious excavation citation and $700 penalty affirmed
Feazell Construction employees worked in an excavation about 14 feet deep with barely sloped, unsupported walls in backfill soil. Standing water, visible sloughing, and rain-washed spoil showed a moving-ground hazard. Excavated material was also stored within two feet of the edge, and the access…
Armor Elevator Company, Inc.
Elevator-shaft fall citation and $80 penalty affirmed
An Armor Elevator foreman worked on a four-by-eight-foot platform at the roof level of a 12-story elevator shaft. Openings on both sides were large enough for him to fall through, but he chose not to use an available safety belt because he believed it would restrict movement. The judge found that a…
Cedar Construction Co.
Repeated spoil-pile violation and $1,275 penalty affirmed
Cedar Construction piled a seven-foot spoil bank, including clods weighing up to 20 pounds, directly at the edge of a 12.8-foot-deep trench where employees worked. The company had a prior final citation for the same spoil-placement standard at another Nebraska worksite, and the Lincoln foreman knew…
American Airlines, Inc.
Repeat and failure-to-abate settlement approved
American Airlines and the Secretary settled a repeated foot-hazard citation and a related failure-to-abate notice after the company represented that it had corrected the conditions. The judge approved only the failure-to-abate portion because the repeated citation had not been forwarded into the…
General Bronze Architectural Products
Serious fall citation affirmed and penalty reduced
A General Bronze employee welded at the fifth-floor perimeter without a safety belt while a foreman was close enough to observe him. The Commission held that the pre-amendment personal-protective-equipment standard was enforceable here because the employee faced a fall of more than 25 feet and…
Federal Glass Co.
Employee notice required for noise settlement
Federal Glass withdrew its contest after the Secretary agreed to extend the abatement date for a workplace-noise citation from July 1974 to December 1975. The Commission treated the linked motions as a settlement because the company received a material benefit from the extended deadline. The unions…
The Federal Glass Company
Employee notice required for noise settlement
Federal Glass withdrew its contest after the Secretary agreed to extend the abatement date for a workplace-noise citation from July 1974 to December 1975. The Commission treated the linked motions as a settlement because the company received a material benefit from the extended deadline. The unions…
Garcia Concrete, Inc.
Unqualified-loader violation affirmed and penalty reduced
A 17-year-old laborer who had only driven a front-end loader in the company yard was directed by a crew lead to move it about two miles on public roads. The company president had stopped the worker's equipment training and instructed him not to operate the loader, but had not told crew leaders…
Layton Roofing Company, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation and $300 penalty affirmed
Layton Roofing employees worked on a flat concrete roof more than 16 feet above the ground without perimeter guardrails. An employee had fallen from the roof and died the day before OSHA's inspection. The judge held that the open-sided-floor standard did not apply to flat roofs, but the Commission…
Edward M. Ream, Inc.
Flat-roof fall citation vacated
Employees installed roofing on a flat, solid-surfaced roof more than 100 feet above the ground without perimeter railings, nets, or personal fall protection. An employee had previously fallen from the roof and died. The judge held that the cited safety-net and personal-protective-equipment…
Norrwock Shoe Company, Div. of SCOA Industries, Inc.
Citation dismissed for lack of evidence
The Secretary moved to dismiss the citation and complaint for lack of evidence, and the judge granted the motion. On review, the Commission asked whether affected employees had received notice. The company then certified that it posted the dismissal motion, the judge's order, and the direction for…
Hanovia Lamp Division, Canrad Precision Industries, Inc.
High-voltage general-duty citation vacated
On remand from the Third Circuit, the Commission considered whether Hanovia should have required two-person teams for high-voltage laboratory testing. The Secretary's expert said many major companies used that practice, but the evidence also showed that laboratories varied their approach depending…
Sierra Permaneer
Settlement approved after union service completed
The parties settled a 27-item nonserious citation through penalty reductions, extended abatement dates, amendment of one cited standard, vacation of items 4, 14, and 23, and withdrawal of the company's contest to the remaining disputed items. Review initially focused on whether posting alone…
Canton Elevator & Manufacturing Co.
Settlement and $150 penalty affirmed
Canton Elevator contested only the proposed penalties. The Secretary agreed to reduce two $100 penalties to $50 each, producing a total settlement penalty of $150, and the company withdrew its contest. The Commission affirmed the settlement under precedent holding that workplace posting gave…
C & R Cabinet Company
Failure-to-abate and posting penalties assessed
A follow-up inspection found six unabated machine-guarding violations involving ripsaws, radial saws, sanders, and a conveyor. C & R Cabinet had corrected seven other items and had ordered some missing guard parts, so the judge reduced the proposed $1,675 failure-to-abate penalty to $825. The…
Alcap Electrical Corp.
Subcontractor citations affirmed for employee exposure
Alcap Electrical was an electrical subcontractor at a building project where employees encountered unguarded floor openings, unguarded stairs, unsecured gas cylinders, and other construction hazards. Alcap argued that it did not create or control the hazardous conditions. The Commission held that a…
R. P. Drywall, Inc.
Citation withdrawal conditioned on employee notice
R. P. Drywall installed drywall on construction and reconstruction projects in Miami. OSHA cited the company over the condition and inspection of hand-held electric tools and extension cords, but later sought to dismiss the complaint and withdraw the citation because it lacked sufficient evidence…
Carling Electric, Inc.
Settlement affirmed after employee-service issue became moot
Carling Electric contested one item of a non-serious citation carrying a proposed $40 penalty. The parties settled by extending the item's abatement date to November 1, 1974, and asking that the citation and penalty be affirmed. The record did not show that affected employees received the…
Kisco Company, Inc.
Welding equipment citation vacated for lack of proof
Kisco fabricated coil and sheet metal products at a Missouri plant. OSHA cited the company after a maintenance electrician was fatally shocked while repairing a side seam welding machine, alleging violations involving its disconnect switch and maintenance practices. The judge found that the switch…
Hartwell Excavating Co.
Mixed ruling on blasting, equipment, and noise items
Hartwell Excavating was cited for eight nonserious violations involving explosives, equipment guards and alarms, and occupational noise at an Idaho sewer project. The Secretary moved to withdraw citation items 1 through 4 after the judge's decision. The Commission allowed withdrawal of items 2…
Donovan's Blacktop, Inc.
Settlement affirms citations and reduces penalties
Donovan's Blacktop faced citations from inspections of its garage and two Massachusetts construction sites. The cited conditions included poor housekeeping, improper electrical grounding, an unsupported trench, missing eye protection, and gasoline carried in an unapproved container. The parties…
Allstate Trailer Sales, Inc.
Penalties reassessed after citations became final
Allstate Trailer Sales manufactured recreational vehicles at a Seattle plant. OSHA issued a serious citation involving unguarded saws and an eleven-item nonserious citation covering posting, recordkeeping, machine guarding, electrical grounding, and eye protection. Allstate's timely notice…
Garland Call Pole Co.
Two final violations restored and one item vacated
Garland Call Pole operated a small Idaho pole yard where OSHA cited unguarded debarker components, flammable liquids near welding and cutting equipment, and inadequate protection for a debarker operator. Garland timely contested only the penalties for the first two violations, then attempted to…
Laminating Services
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced to $400
Laminating Services manufactured wood and vinyl wall covering at a Kentucky plant. It did not timely correct final citation items involving unguarded machine points of operation and unguarded sprocket wheels and chains. The company sought an extension only after the abatement deadline, and the…
Robert E. Lee Plumbers, Inc.
Exposing subcontractor held liable for site hazards
Robert E. Lee Plumbers was the plumbing subcontractor on a project involving four six-story residential buildings. Its employees had to move throughout the site and were exposed to debris, unguarded wall openings, and stairways without railings. The Commission held that the company could be cited…
Consolidated Pine, Inc.
Settlement preserves repeated classification
Consolidated Pine contested a $90 repeated violation involving a work platform and a willful-serious violation involving unguarded trim saws. The parties settled by reclassifying the saw violation as serious, reducing its proposed penalty from $5,400 to $1,000, and allowing the company to withdraw…
Petrolane Offshore Construction Service, Inc.
Maritime work citations affirmed under OSHA coverage
Petrolane performed offshore construction and ship repair work at a Louisiana site, including conversion of a barge and sandblasting a drilling-platform structure. OSHA issued seventeen nonserious citation items covering recordkeeping, cranes, abrasive blasting, compressed-gas cylinders, scaffolds…
Paccar, Inc.
Press-brake guarding violation affirmed, tank-roll item vacated
Paccar used a tank roll machine and eight press brakes to form metal parts at a truck manufacturing facility. The Commission found that the press brakes lacked point-of-operation protection and that guards over their power-transmission components did not address that separate hazard. It held that…
Cooper Industries, Inc.
Spray-booth penalty restored to proposed amount
Cooper Industries operated a small Ohio metal fabrication, welding, and painting plant. The citation included items involving respirators, a dip-tank railing, a forklift horn, spray-booth ventilation, and combustible residue in a spray booth. On review, the Commission declined to decide whether the…
All United Rent
Trench citation vacated as unpreventable occurrence
All United Rent supplied a backhoe and an experienced operator for excavation of a sewer-connection trench in Utah. The trench was about 18 feet deep, had steep unsupported sides, and collapsed while the operator and two other workers were inside. OSHA cited the equipment lessor for failing to…
Horowitz Bross., Inc.
Serious trench citation vacated for lack of proof
Horowitz was laying water pipe in a trench that was about 88 feet long, roughly six feet deep, three feet wide at the bottom, and seven feet wide at the top. OSHA alleged that the trench violated the rule for hard or compact soil because it was not adequately shored or sloped. The Commission held…
Pollard, Inc.
Excavation citation affirmed and penalty reduced
Pollard installed concrete pipe in wet, sandy-clay excavations near a heavily traveled Utah highway. Two employees worked in excavations whose walls were not protected by shoring, adequate sloping, or another equivalent method. The Commission affirmed the violation because the employees were…
Isaacson Structural Steel Co.
Fall-protection citation vacated where cited methods were infeasible
Isaacson erected a structural-steel A-frame over water as part of a log deck at an Alaska paper mill. One employee worked at the top of the frame while two welders worked from a float scaffold, all more than 25 feet above the water. The Commission rejected the Secretary's late request to apply the…
Safeway Stores, Inc.
Wheel-chocking citations vacated on joint motion
Safeway received multiple nonserious citations for failing to block or chock truck wheels while powered industrial trucks boarded them. Safeway had raised but then waived a defense that Department of Transportation regulation displaced OSHA authority over the working conditions. After the…
F. F. Green Construction Co., Inc.
Serious trench citation and $900 penalty affirmed
F. F. Green installed a water main in an Alaska trench that was about eleven and a half feet deep in wet, sandy, unstable soil. At least two employees worked where the trench was not adequately shored or sloped, and the citation also included ladder-access and flammable-liquid-container items. The…
D.R. Johnson Lumber Company
Edger-guard charge vacated for lack of employer knowledge
D.R. Johnson operated a sawmill where an edger's power-transmission guard was removed and replaced several times during adjustment work. The edger was later operated while the guard and maintenance workers were absent, but the record did not show that company supervisors knew or reasonably could…
Adams & Mulberry Corp.
Trench violation reduced from willful to serious
Adams & Mulberry installed underground conduit in a narrow Louisville trench that was eight to ten feet deep, had vertical sides, and contained unstable soil and water. Two inexperienced employees entered beyond the completed shoring while positioning additional plywood sheets, and one employee was…
Weyerhaeuser Company
Life-jacket citation affirmed without penalty
Weyerhaeuser's boom men worked on logs, boom sticks, and walkways at a Washington log pond without wearing required buoyant devices. The company had supplied life jackets and encouraged their use, but most organized employees resisted wearing them and had previously stopped work over the issue. The…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corp.
Construction-site fire, floor-opening, and crane citations affirmed
Julius Nasso was a concrete contractor on a New York project involving three twelve-story buildings. OSHA cited inadequate firefighting equipment, unguarded floor openings, and an unbarricaded crane swing radius. The judge found that the available water equipment did not cover the required floor…
Park Construction Co.
Crane-lubrication citation affirmed under excavating standard
Park Construction used a crawler crane for excavation work while an employee lubricated its suspension system. The revolving superstructure remained in operation, and the employee was struck by the rear of the cab and died. The Commission held that the crane standard originally cited applied to…
Tobacco River Lumber Co.
Mixed ruling on thirty sawmill citation items
Tobacco River operated a Montana sawmill and planing mill that received a thirty-item citation covering housekeeping, stairs, protective equipment, fire safety, tools, gas cylinders, machinery, and electrical conditions. The Commission upheld the inspection because a company employee with authority…
Sheet Metal Specialty Co.
Press-brake guarding citation affirmed
Sheet Metal Specialty used a press brake to form metal ductwork in its Virginia fabrication shop. The operator and helper held sheets by hand with one hand as close as six to twelve inches from the unguarded point of operation. The Commission held that the general point-of-operation guarding…
Danco construction Company
Mixed ruling on sewer-work citations and penalties
Danco received consolidated citations from three Little Rock sewer-construction sites involving posting, hard hats, fire protection, fuel handling, trenching, electrical equipment, ladders, traffic visibility, and spoil placement. The Commission held that Danco's timely contest of a citation also…
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.