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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Luther Marvin Robbins d/b/a Robbins Painting Service
$900 aluminum-ladder penalty affirmed
Robbins Painting employees used and moved a 28-foot aluminum extension ladder near an energized 7,620-volt power line while painting an apartment building. The ladder contacted the line, and an employee received a fatal electrical shock. The foreman knew how close the power line was to the building…
Caribtow Corp.
Contest dismissed for refusing employee-participation notice
Caribtow expressly refused to post the Commission notice informing affected employees that they could participate in the case. The judge held that this refusal breached a condition of the company's continued participation and granted the Secretary's motion to dismiss the notice of contest. The…
V. O. Hegsted d/b/a Challenger Supply
Pallet-plant citation resolved with $106 in penalties
Challenger Supply produced wooden pallets at a small Idaho plant and received a 12-item other-than-serious citation. The judge affirmed violations involving washing facilities, housekeeping, an unguarded elevated storage area, forklift controls, missing eye protection, electrical grounding and…
Emory H. Mixon
Logging-truck violation classified as serious with a $100 penalty
Emory Mixon's logging operation used truck stake-release mechanisms that placed the operator on the side where the logs were unloaded. Drivers attached a 30-foot chain to each release, moved to the front or rear of the truck, and pulled it to lower the stake and release the load. The judge found a…
Cable Car Advertisers, Inc.
Ship-repair and posting citations partly affirmed
Cable Car Advertisers was converting the burned-out ferryboat San Leandro into a floating office while it was moored in San Francisco Bay. The Commission held that work on the floating, towable structure was covered by the maritime standards and that maintaining a workplace on navigable waters…
Mississippi Valley Erection Co. of Tennessee
Lifeline item reinstated but final order is missing
Mississippi Valley Erection received multiple citations involving float scaffolds, fall protection, temporary flooring, ladders, ropes, planking, air hoses, welding, and safety nets during structural steel work. The Commission held that an air-hose item had become a final order because the company…
Bi-Co Pavers, Inc.
Trench citation vacated because required slope was provided
Bi-Co Pavers dug a clay-soil trench for a municipal sewer line and sloped its sides at a two-to-one ratio without installing shoring. A portion collapsed after employees undermined a side to tighten pipe bolts, injuring two employees. The Secretary argued that a note in the trenching tables…
McCrory Sumwalt Construction Co.
Transformer-proximity citation affirmed with a $300 penalty
McCrory Sumwalt built a temporary enclosure around three energized 7,200-volt transformers at a shopping-center project. To reinforce the enclosure for a scaffold, the superintendent directed an employee to measure inside it near a transformer but did not specify how to make the measurement. The…
ADM Grain Co., Inc.
Maritime citations reinstated after postal-delay remand
ADM Grain received 12 other-than-serious maritime and workplace citations involving flotation devices, rescue and first-aid equipment, grain-spout certification, barge access, ladders, wire-rope clips, machinery guarding, accident reporting, and waste containers. The first judge vacated the entire…
F.F. Green Construction Co., Inc.
Safety citations affirmed and reporting penalty removed
F.F. Green was laying a water line in Anchorage when a backhoe contacted or came too close to a 115,000-volt transmission line and an employee guiding pipe was electrocuted. The judge affirmed three serious violations involving power-line clearance, spoil piled at the excavation edge, and…
Southern Soya Corp.
Cottonseed cave-in violation affirmed with a $750 penalty
Southern Soya operated a cottonseed mill with a large storage tank and a steel tunnel that protected employees while seed was removed. Packed cottonseed could form vertical and undercut walls that might collapse if employees left the tunnel before the seed reached a safe level. A foreman…
Remodeling By Oltmann's, Inc.
Amended citation affirmed after contest withdrawal
The Secretary amended Remodeling By Oltmann's citation by deleting several items and reducing the proposed penalties. The parties jointly stipulated to those changes, represented that the remaining conditions had been or would be abated, and requested withdrawal of the employer's contest. The…
Armor Elevator Co., Inc.
Floor-opening violation affirmed and ladder item vacated
Armor Elevator was installing elevators in a New York building where elevator-shaft openings were not protected by compliant railings or secured covers. The judge affirmed a serious floor-opening violation and assessed $500, while vacating a separate item alleging that a wooden ladder was used at…
Blaisdell Manufacturing, Inc.
Settlement disclaimer required revision
Blaisdell Manufacturing entered a settlement covering two serious citations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The Commission affirmed the vacation of citation 2 because the Secretary said he could not produce enough evidence to prove it. It set aside approval of citation 1 because the…
Dixie Electric, Inc.
Unguarded-floor penalty increased
Dixie Electric employees performed electrical work close to the unguarded edge of a third floor, 35 feet above the ground, and used stairs without railings. The judge affirmed non-serious violations for the open-sided floor and stairways, assessed penalties of $35 and $25, and vacated an item…
Swan Lake Moulding Co.
Seven violations and $265 penalty affirmed
Swan Lake Moulding operated a cabinet shop and retail building-materials yard where OSHA cited electrical, machine-guarding, housekeeping, and floor hazards. The company contested the penalties for seven items but did not dispute the cited conditions. The judge affirmed those seven violations and…
Harvey Wrecking Co.
Demolition-sequence item vacated
Harvey Wrecking was demolishing a 14-story Chicago building where an employee worked beside an unguarded wall opening and equipment operated near floor openings without curbs or stoplogs. The Commission affirmed those two conditions as serious violations of specific standards under section 5(a)(2)…
Healy-Kruse Company
Serious and non-serious citations withdrawn
OSHA issued Healy-Kruse two citations containing two serious items and five non-serious items, with proposed penalties totaling $1,010. After the company contested them, the Secretary moved to withdraw both citations because he lacked the evidence needed to prove the alleged violations. The…
State Sheet Metal & Roofing Co.
Flat-roof citation vacated with prejudice
State Sheet Metal employees installed flashing and guttering at the unguarded edge of a flat roof nearly 25 feet above the ground. The judge vacated the serious citation because he concluded that section 1926.500(d)(1) did not apply to flat roofs. The Commission stated that the standard does apply…
Glen Construction Company, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation affirmed
Glen Construction contested a non-serious citation alleging that an open-sided roof lacked guarding required by section 1926.500(d)(1). The judge granted summary judgment to the company because he concluded that the standard did not apply to flat roofs. The Commission rejected that interpretation…
Mushroom Transportation Company, Inc.
Truck-chocking item preempted by federal motor-carrier rules
Mushroom Transportation was cited for using allegedly inadequate wooden blocks instead of wheel chocks while powered industrial trucks boarded highway trucks at its terminal. The company argued that Department of Transportation motor-carrier rules already regulated the same working condition. The…
Molinos de Puerto Rico, Inc.
Contested citations vacated with prejudice
The judge vacated Molinos de Puerto Rico's amended citations because OSHA issued them 131 days after its inspection and did not explain the delay. On review, the Secretary filed a notice attempting to withdraw every contested citation and penalty but did not state the factual reason for doing so…
BN Transport, Inc.
Contested citation item affirmed after withdrawal
BN Transport received a four-item non-serious citation and contested only item 3 and its proposed penalty. The company later sought to withdraw that notice of contest, stated that the cited conditions had been corrected, and tendered the proposed penalty. The Commission confirmed that a later…
Kehm Construction Company, Inc.
Scaffold-access items affirmed and ladder-defect item vacated
Kehm Construction was cited at two Nebraska job sites for failing to provide safe ladder access to scaffolds and for using an aluminum ladder with a crimped rung and bent side rail. The Commission affirmed the two scaffold-access violations because employees had to climb the scaffold structure to…
Ark Wrecking Co., Inc.
Recordkeeping violation affirmed without penalty
An Ark Wrecking employee was killed when the loader he was operating fell through the second floor of a building being demolished. OSHA alleged that the company failed to conduct the required engineering survey and used equipment on a floor too weak to support it. The Commission agreed with the…
Longview Brass & Aluminum Company
Case reinstated after answer located
A Commission judge dismissed Longview Brass & Aluminum's notice of contest because the company appeared not to have answered the Secretary's complaint. The Commission's file showed that it had received an undated letter intended to serve as the company's answer in both docketed cases. That answer…
Maher Distribution Center
Unguarded-forklift violation affirmed
A Maher Distribution employee operated a forklift without an overhead guard while moving motorcycle crates in a warehouse. His supervisor knew the guard was absent and permitted him to use the truck for transport, although the supervisor instructed him not to stack with it. The employee later…
Brown & Kerr, Inc.
Flat-roof citation vacated with prejudice
Brown & Kerr employees were installing guttering at the outside edge of a flat roof when OSHA issued a serious citation under the open-sided-floor guarding standard. The judge vacated the citation because he concluded that the standard did not apply to flat roofs. The Commission stated that the…
Heyse Sheet Metal & Roofing Co., Inc.
Roof guardrail and access violations affirmed
Heyse Sheet Metal employees installed a virtually flat roof about 30 feet above the ground without perimeter railings and used a material-hoist frame instead of a ladder for access. The judge affirmed the ladder-access violation with a $500 penalty but vacated the roof-edge item. The Commission…
S. D. Mullins Company, Inc. and Diamond Roofing Company, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail violations affirmed
Employees of S. D. Mullins and Diamond Roofing worked on an unguarded flat roof about 25 feet above the ground. The judge vacated both roof-edge citations because he concluded that the open-sided-floor standard did not cover roofs. The Commission reversed, holding that a flat roof on which…
Hersman Construction Co.
Three guarding violations affirmed and failure-to-abate penalties rejected
Hersman Construction received citations covering fall protection, floor and stair guarding, debris disposal, citation posting, and housekeeping at a building project. The judge found that OSHA proved only two open-sided-floor guarding violations and one inadequately covered floor opening. He…
Rogge Lumber Sales, Inc.
Posting and failure-to-abate penalties affirmed
Rogge Lumber failed to post an earlier uncontested citation and did not timely correct three items involving drinking water, toilet facilities, and a walkway near a gang trimmer. The judge rejected OSHA's mechanically calculated proposals because they imposed fixed minimums without proper…
Gerry Division of Outdoor Sports Industries, Inc.
Machine-guarding items affirmed and rivet-machine item vacated
Gerry manufactured outdoor equipment and apparel using industrial sewing machines, a rivet machine, and an abrasive grinder. The company admitted four items involving compressed-air cleaning, stair railings, fan guarding, and a separate rivet-machine guarding condition, with a single $30 penalty…
Milprint, Inc.
Fixed-stair item vacated for lack of proof
OSHA issued Milprint 13 non-serious citation items covering conditions at its Milwaukee plant. The judge affirmed nine items and vacated four, assessing penalties totaling $280. On review, the Commission reversed the fixed-stair item because OSHA did not prove that employees regularly used the…
Arizona Public Service Co.
Transformer-work citations vacated
Arizona Public Service employees worked around energized lightning arresters while repositioning lifting equipment above a transformer. An experienced journeyman electrician contacted an arrester and was killed after disregarding known clearance rules. The judge found no violation based on his…
Gurney Manufacturing Division, Gurney Industries, Inc.
Withdrawal dispute remanded for further proceedings
Gurney Manufacturing contested a citation under section 1910.93(a)(2) and later moved to withdraw its notice of contest. A judge granted withdrawal, but the employee representative had opposed the motion, and the Commission directed review. After remand, the judge dismissed further proceedings on…
Associated Meat Packers, Inc.
Meat-saw guarding citation vacated with prejudice
Associated Meat Packers was cited for allegedly inadequate guarding on three circular meat-cutting saws at its Portland abattoir. The judge approved a settlement affirming the serious citation and $550 penalty while extending abatement to allow time for a variance request. On review, the Secretary…
W.W. Arnold Construction Co., Inc.
Contest reinstated after complaint-service issue
A Commission judge dismissed W.W. Arnold Construction's notice of contest because the company had not answered the Secretary's complaint. The company stated that it never received a copy of the complaint. The Commission directed review, reinstated the case, and gave the company 15 days after…
Genco, Inc.
Construction citation vacated after inspection violations
OSHA issued Genco a 13-item non-serious citation after inspecting its construction work at Honolulu International Airport. The judge vacated the citation because the compliance officer began the inspection before presenting credentials to the owner, operator, or agent in charge as required by the…
Apex Paper Box Co.
Fire-extinguisher inspection item vacated
OSHA issued Apex Paper Box 19 non-serious citation items covering fire protection, electrical conditions, exits, housekeeping, industrial trucks, records, and first aid. The judge affirmed all 19 items and assessed penalties totaling $731.25. The Commission vacated only the fire-extinguisher…
Gilles & Cotting, Inc.
General contractor scaffold citation vacated
Gilles & Cotting was the general contractor on a construction project where a scaffold used and controlled by a glass subcontractor collapsed, killing two subcontractor employees. OSHA cited the general contractor under three scaffold standards because it controlled the jobsite and other…
Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
Specific crane violation affirmed
Sun Shipbuilding was cited after employees used a crane and a non-locking clamp to move a 40-foot angle beam, which slipped and struck an employee. OSHA alleged both a general-duty violation and a violation of the specific crane standard governing secure and balanced loads. The Commission dismissed…
Container Corporation of America
Withdrawal order corrected
Container Corporation of America contested four non-serious citation items and their proposed penalties. The Secretary later withdrew two items, and the employer withdrew its contest of the other two after the parties agreed to extend one abatement date. The judge approved the stipulation but did…
Boston Elevator and Machine Company
Serious citation affirmed
Boston Elevator and Machine Company contested a serious citation, a non-serious citation, and their proposed penalties. The Secretary amended the serious citation to allege a general-duty violation and withdrew the proposed penalty for the non-serious item. The employer later withdrew its contest…
Albert and Maguire Securities Company, Inc.
Toilet-facility citation dismissed
Albert and Maguire Securities operated a stock brokerage office with male and female employees and one toilet in its leased space. Women employees customarily used public restrooms in a department store about 50 feet away in the same shopping center. OSHA cited the company for not providing…
Louis P. Anesi d/b/a Anesi Packing Company
Contest reinstated
Louis P. Anesi, representing himself, did not file a formal answer to the Secretary's complaint. The judge dismissed his notice of contest and affirmed the citation and proposed penalties. The Commission found that Anesi had timely sent the Secretary a letter denying every citation identified in…
Keystone Forging Company
Letter treated as notice of contest
Keystone Forging sent a June 1 letter concerning a non-serious citation and requested additional time to abate several items. Earlier orders treated the letter as an abatement-extension request. The Commission instead treated the letter as a notice of contest under section 10(a) of the Act. It…
Driscoll Construction Company, Inc.
Lanyard violation affirmed
Driscoll Construction was performing sewer reconstruction in a deep trench where employees used 40-foot safety-belt lanyards. During demolition of a sewer arch, two employees had not shortened or connected their lanyards to limit a fall to six feet, and one employee fell and was fatally injured…
California Stevedore and Ballast Company
Two longshoring citations affirmed
California Stevedore employees worked cargo aboard two vessels under an unsecured 1,000-pound hatch beam, with open-ended hatch-beam hooks, and on narrow ledges without handlines or grab rails. The Commission amended the unsecured-beam citation to allege a serious violation, affirmed it, and…
Lake Butler Apparel Company
Electrical-grounding penalty restored
Lake Butler Apparel manufactured clothing and continuously used six ungrounded portable electrical tools or appliances. The judge affirmed the electrical-grounding, fire-extinguisher color, and OSHA-notice posting violations, but vacated a grinder work-rest item for lack of factual proof. The judge…
Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, Inc.
Six shipyard violations affirmed
Tacoma Boatbuilding employees worked in fish tanks aboard two vessels on staging without required rails, on single planks instead of double planks, and with unattended oxygen and acetylene hoses left connected at the cylinders. The Commission treated the same condition on each vessel as a separate…
Globe Union, Inc.
Abatement order set aside while employer contest remained pending
OSHA cited Globe Union for excessive employee exposure to lead and alleged failures to use feasible controls and respirators. The employee representative contested the abatement period, while the employer separately contested the citation and proposed penalty. The union later moved to withdraw its…
Hi-Fi Carpet Mills, Inc.
Late contest rejected
OSHA cited Hi-Fi Carpet Mills for eight non-serious conditions involving electrical grounding, compressed air, exits, access to electrical controls, housekeeping, and flexible wiring. The company received the citation and proposed penalties on January 19, 1972, making February 9 the final day to…
Baroco Industries, Inc.
Withdrawal made conditional
Baroco Industries asked to withdraw its notice of contest, and the Secretary did not object. The judge granted the request and affirmed the citation and $150 in proposed penalties. The Commission found that the record did not show abatement, penalty tender, an opportunity for affected employees to…
St. Louis County Water Company
Penalties reduced to $450
St. Louis County Water Company was cited for 32 non-serious violations at five facilities, including electrical, stairway, housekeeping, flammable-liquid, compressed-gas, welding, equipment, ladder, and protective-equipment conditions. The company stopped contesting the violations and abatement…
Ventre Packing Co., Inc.
Citation vacated because the cooler top was not a platform
Ventre Packing used the top of an eight-to-nine-foot walk-in cooler extension to store pieces of a disassembled metal frame. OSHA cited the company because the elevated surface lacked perimeter guardrails, and the administrative law judge affirmed the citation with a $25 penalty. The Commission…
Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Crossett Division
Respirator violation affirmed and ventilation item vacated
Georgia-Pacific manufactured plywood, paper, and particle board at a plant where employees periodically inspected a chlorine dioxide generator. OSHA alleged that employees entered the generator area without required protective equipment and that the area lacked ventilation required for bleach…
Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation
Contested pit citation affirmed after withdrawal
Kaiser Aluminum received a two-item citation for other-than-serious violations, including unguarded pits and a powered-industrial-truck condition. The company contested only Item 1(b), which concerned eight unguarded pits and carried an amended $40 penalty. Kaiser later moved to withdraw that…
Delta Tank Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Some abatement extensions granted
Delta Tank Manufacturing asked to modify a final Commission order by extending the abatement dates for four citation items. The administrative law judge granted extensions for Items 1 and 3 but denied them for Items 2 and 4. After reviewing the record and the Secretary of Labor's brief, the…
American Smelting and Refining Company
Airborne lead general-duty violation affirmed
American Smelting and Refining operated a lead-refining plant in Omaha where air samples showed inorganic lead concentrations above the level generally accepted as safe. The administrative law judge found that the airborne lead was a recognized hazard likely to cause death or serious physical harm…
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.