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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Matter of McKee
Separation alone did not justify visa-petition denial
The Board reviewed a United States citizen's appeal from the denial of a visa petition filed for his Australian wife. The District Director denied the petition because the spouses were no longer living together. The Board held that when the parties entered into a valid marriage and there was no…
Matter of Cote
International truck driver qualified as a business visitor
The Board reviewed the Service's appeal from an Immigration Judge's decision admitting a Canadian truck driver as a temporary visitor for business. The driver worked for a United States company and transported General Motors vehicles between Canada and the United States, delivering vehicles in the…
Brown & Root, Inc.
Rock-crusher platform guarding violation affirmed
Brown & Root operated a rock crusher at a nuclear power plant construction site. A demolition-machine operator worked on a small platform with two unguarded openings above a moving conveyor that led to the crusher. The Commission allowed OSHA to amend the citation from a general-industry…
Diamond Roofing Company, Inc.
Roof fall-protection case remanded for defenses
Diamond Roofing employees installed roofing on a narrow pedestrian walkway about 27 feet above a concrete sidewalk and a heavily traveled road. They worked near the roof edge without safety belts, nets, guardrails, or any other listed fall protection. The Commission held that the permanent metal…
Armstrong Cork Company
Defective tilt-table safety switch violation affirmed
Armstrong Cork used a hydraulic tilt table beside a paper rewinder, and an employee was fatally crushed when the table rose with a defective safety switch left in the raise position. The Commission held that the pulp and paper standards cited by Armstrong did not preempt the general duty clause…
F. H. Lawson Company
An impossibility defense fails if the employer never considered changing how the machine is run
Lawson's Cincinnati plant runs three riveters and two power presses, all cited for unguarded points of operation. One riveter fastens casters to a circular dolly, with the operator's hands about a foot from a two inch opening. A press and a second riveter pierce and then rivet a steel band around a…
Matter of Toro
Illegally obtained evidence could still be fundamentally fair
The Board reviewed a deportation case in which an Immigration Judge admitted a Form I-213 containing the respondent's admissions after an immigration officer stopped and questioned her based only on her apparent Hispanic or Latin appearance. The Board held that a Fourth Amendment violation does not…
Matter of Garcia-Flores
Warning violation required prejudice analysis
The Board reviewed a Mexican respondent's appeal from a deportability finding based on entry into the United States without inspection. The Immigration Judge relied on statements and Service forms obtained after a Service investigator interviewed the respondent without advising her of the…
Weyerhaeuser Co.; Konkolville Lumber Co.; Continental Kitchens, Inc.; Boise Cascade Corp.; Noblecraft Industries, Inc.; Diamond International Corp.; Louisiana-Pacific Corp.
The radial saw guarding standard reaches woodworking but not sawmilling, so the cases go back for a hearing on what the saws were doing
Eight cases against wood products companies, all charging the same thing: radial saws without the lower blade guard required by 29 C.F.R. § 1910.213(h)(1), the guard that rides against the stock and adjusts itself to the thickness of the cut. The Ninth Circuit decided the consolidated appeal in…
Connecticut Aerosols, Inc.
A settlement cannot rewrite abatement dates that already became a final order
Connecticut Aerosols received two citations in December 1977 alleging 38 serious and 7 nonserious violations, each with a specified abatement date. The company's notice of contest challenged only the proposed penalties on certain items. That choice mattered a great deal. Under section 10(a), an…
Amoco Chemical Corporation
Noise-abatement extension remanded for hearing
Amoco sought a second extension of the abatement deadline for a final noise-standard citation. The Secretary said he lacked enough data to support or oppose the request and asked for a hearing, but the judge treated that position as no objection and granted the extension. The Commission held that…
Babcock & Wilcox Co.
Settlement agreement approved
Babcock & Wilcox, the Secretary of Labor, and the employee representative submitted a stipulation and settlement agreement dated February 8, 1980. The Commission approved that agreement. The official order does not describe the citations, standards, settlement terms, or any penalty disposition.
Dun-Par Engineered Form Company
The perimeter guarding standard covers the second floor but not the roof, and a form subcontractor cannot hand the guardrails to the general contractor
Dun-Par was the forming subcontractor on a two story school in Kansas City, Kansas. Its crews put up four-by-four uprights, built an open gridwork of timbers across the top, dropped metal pans into the openings, and then cleared out so another subcontractor could pour concrete. When the slab cured…
Matter of Kondo
Nonviable marriage could not support rescission in Ninth Circuit case
The Board reconsidered its earlier decision requiring rescission of the respondent's adjustment of status based on a marriage that was not viable at the time of adjustment. The Ninth Circuit had held that a marriage that was legally valid but factually dead could not support rescission. The Board…
Matter of Kumar
Later investment could not use superseded investor standard
The Board reviewed an Indian respondent's appeal from the denial of adjustment of status and the grant of voluntary departure. He had entered the United States as a visitor, invested in a clothing business before October 7, 1976, and later invested in a motel. He argued that the motel investment…
Otis Elevator Co.
A repeat citation fails on dates alone, because the Secretary never proved any earlier citation was a final order before this inspection
Two Otis employees, foreman Lomiento and helper Seipel, were installing an elevator in a pumping station under construction in Tarrytown, New York. The building had a grade level and two basement levels, roughly sixteen feet apart, with the walls up and the roof on but the interior unfinished. On…
Acme Fence & Iron Co., Inc.
A sincere belief is not a good faith belief when the employer never made the diligent inquiry that would have tested it
Acme Fence galvanized chain link fencing in Norman, Oklahoma by drawing wire through vats of molten zinc. The vats were company-built, sixteen to twenty feet long, with walls about four feet high and a standing surface on top only two and a half to three feet wide. Employees climbed onto that ledge…
University of Pittsburgh
Political-subdivision exemption rejected
OSHA cited the University of Pittsburgh's printing shop for inadequate exit capacity and an unguarded horizontal belt drive. A judge vacated the items after finding that Pitt was a political subdivision excluded from the OSH Act's definition of employer. The Commission reversed because Pitt was not…
Matter of Hinojosa
Parole did not end domicile needed for possible waiver
The Board considered the Service's motion to reconsider a prior decision about an applicant who had been convicted of a marijuana-law violation. The Board had previously found the applicant statutorily eligible to seek a waiver of excludability under § 212(c), subject to an Immigration Judge's…
Matter of Balodis
First-cousin marriage could support a fiancé visa petition
A naturalized United States citizen from Latvia petitioned to classify his Latvian first cousin as his fiancé under section 101(a)(15)(K) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The couple intended to marry and live in Michigan, where first-cousin marriages could not be solemnized. The Regional…
Colonnade Cafeteria
Contest reinstated after posting lapse
Colonnade Cafeteria timely contested three OSHA citations but did not submit proof that it had posted the notice of contest for employees. Its attorney said the proof card mailed to the employer was not received, the manager was on vacation, and the omission was unintentional. The Commission held…
International Harvester Company
Divided Commission leaves noise settlement approved
OSHA cited excessive noise affecting salaried testers and engineers in International Harvester's endurance-testing corridor. A settlement required the company to withdraw its contest and install an acoustical ceiling over that corridor, but a union representing mechanics objected that the plan did…
Mattson Construction Co.
Repeated classifications and $2,160 penalties reinstated
OSHA cited Mattson Construction for an unguarded second-floor edge, ladder rails that did not extend 36 inches above the landing, and an unmarked electrical circuit box. The judge affirmed the violations but reduced their repeated classifications because he found no flaunting disregard of the Act…
Tri-City Construction Company
Crawler swing-radius violation affirmed
Tri-City used a 235 Crawler Caterpillar both to excavate a trench and to lower pipe sections into it. The accessible swing radius behind the machine's rotating superstructure was not barricaded, and at least one employee was exposed. The Commission held that crane and derrick standards apply…
H.B. Zachry Company
Crane power-line clearance violation affirmed
H.B. Zachry used a mobile crane to carry pipe beneath energized power lines at a construction site. The crane jib contacted the lines, fatally injuring one employee and hospitalizing another. The Commission held that the 10-foot clearance requirement applied to mobile cranes traveling with a load…
General Electric Company
No hard hat violation where loads ride low, aisles are marked, and warnings go out first
Building 63 at General Electric's Erie, Pennsylvania plant is about 600 feet long and 300 feet wide, divided into five bays. Roughly 25 feet above each bay floor run pendant-controlled overhead cranes that move motor control cabinets, materials and machine parts the length of the building, with…
Westinghouse Broadcasting Co., Inc. d/b/a WBZ TV Group Westinghouse Broadcasting
Locked-door and exit-sign violations affirmed
OSHA cited conditions at Westinghouse's Boston television and radio station, including wet newsroom housekeeping, alcohol storage, locked or obstructed doors, and an unmarked FM-studio exit. The Commission affirmed vacatur of the newsroom item because it duplicated an uncontested wet-floor…
Titanium Metals Corp. of America
What inspectors see in plain view on the walk from the guard gate is admissible, and greasing the hoist is no answer to willfulness
Two painters were working from a two-point suspension scaffold on a forty foot building at the Titanium Metals plant in Henderson, Nevada. An employee phoned in a complaint, and on May 7, 1975 two compliance officers came out. They showed their credentials to the guards at the gate, were admitted…
Karl Koch Erecting Co., Inc.
Penalty order corrected to $800
Karl Koch Erecting asked the Commission to correct penalty amounts in the judge's order. The Commission treated the request as a motion to correct a clerical oversight under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a) and granted it. The corrected penalties were $400 for Item 1, $150 for Item 2, $150…
Acchione & Canuso, Inc.
A contractor that leases out its crane operator keeps him as its employee, and cannot lease away the duty to train him
Acchione & Canuso was the general contractor on a mile long road job in Philadelphia, and it made a habit of renting cranes and operators to its subcontractors. The structural steel subcontractor, J. Richard Steers, Inc., asked for a crane for a couple of days, and Acchione agreed orally. The…
Miller Brewing Company
Forklift citation amendment allowed
A Miller Brewing employee drove a forklift with elevated forks, struck an overhead conveyor catwalk, overturned the truck, and was fatally injured. OSHA initially cited the condition under the general duty clause, but the judge dismissed that charge because powered-industrial-truck standards…
Matter of Damioli
Dual nationality did not support treaty investor status
The Commissioner reviewed the denial of an Italian applicant's request to change his nonimmigrant status so he could work as a treaty investor in a Virgin Islands business. The business owner was a native-born United States citizen who also held Italian nationality through marriage. The…
Martin-Tomlinson Roofing Co., Inc.
Flat-roof safety-belt violation affirmed
Martin-Tomlinson employees worked as close as one foot from the edge of a flat roof about 20 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Commission held that the obvious fall hazard and OSHA's identification of safety belts and a lifeline established a prima facie violation of 29 C.F.R. §…
Matter of Gonzalez
Parental relationship supported sibling classification
The Board reviewed a United States citizen's petition seeking preference classification for her brother. The beneficiary was born out of wedlock to the petitioner's father and another woman, but the petitioner's mother had taken him into her home and raised him as her son until her death. The Board…
General Motors Corporation
Settlement agreement approved
General Motors, the Secretary of Labor, and the employee representative submitted a stipulation and settlement agreement dated December 26, 1979. The Commission approved the agreement on January 17, 1980. The official order does not identify the underlying citations, cited standards, settlement…
Matter of Garcia
Involuntary admissions could not support deportability
The Board reviewed a Mexican respondent's appeal from a deportability finding based on entry without inspection. The Immigration Judge relied on forms recording admissions made after the respondent said Service officers told him deportation was inevitable, denied him access to counsel, and detained…
Matter of Samai
Inadequate hearing notice required a new deportation hearing
The Board reviewed an immigration judge's decision finding an Iranian student deportable and denying voluntary departure. The Order to Show Cause was served by mail on September 8, 1978, and the hearing was held that same day, without the minimum notice required by the applicable regulations. The…
Matter of Reyes
Conditional adjustment grant could not be reopened to challenge eligibility
The Board reviewed a Service motion to reopen deportation proceedings after an immigration judge conditionally granted the respondent's adjustment of status. The Service alleged that the marriage supporting the adjustment was fraudulent and that the respondent had been convicted of violating 18…
Matter of Niayesh
Student visa holder was excludable after unauthorized employment
The Board reviewed an appeal by an Iranian student who had left school and accepted full-time work as a machinist before attempting to return to the United States with a student visa. The majority held that he was excludable because he did not have a valid immigrant visa and that the District…
Matter of Sanchez
Mail fraud conviction left waiver eligibility dependent on legitimation finding
The Board reviewed a Mexican lawful permanent resident's appeal after he was found deportable for mail fraud committed within five years of an entry and sentenced to one year and one day, even though the sentence was suspended. The Board held that his frequent commuter entries counted for the…
Dravo Corporation
Ventilation is owed the moment welding starts in a confined space, and nobody has to measure the air first
A compliance officer inspecting Dravo's Neville Island shipyard near Pittsburgh on November 14, 1975 watched a welder climb out of a deck hatch on a barge under construction. The welder had spent four hours making repairs inside the rake, the compartment at the sloped bow. The rake is fifty-four…
Matter of Flores
Fraudulent entry documents barred voluntary departure
The Board reviewed a Mexican respondent's appeal from the denial of voluntary departure after he entered the United States without inspection and was convicted of conspiring to violate federal law and selling false documents relating to alien registration. The Board held that selling counterfeit…
Matter of Cavazos
Family equities overcame preconceived intent in adjustment case
The Board reviewed a Mexican respondent's application for adjustment of status after he entered as a visitor, married a United States citizen, and had a United States citizen child. The immigration judge denied adjustment as a matter of discretion based on a finding that the respondent intended to…
Matter of Fong
Stepmother visa petition remanded for evidence of parental involvement
The Board reviewed a United States citizen's visa petition for his father's first wife, whom he claimed as his stepmother. The District Director had denied the petition because the family structure involved the father's later relationship with the petitioner's natural mother and was considered…
Mississippi Power and Light
General-duty electrical citation vacated
A Mississippi Power crew replacing a utility pole attempted to transfer an 8,000-volt line after opening the wrong disconnect, and one lineman died; the Commission inferred that he was electrocuted by the live line. OSHA cited the company under the general duty clause even though specific…
George Hyman Construction Co.
A different jobsite, a different superintendent and a year's gap go to the penalty, not to whether the violation is repeated
An OSHA inspection of a George Hyman Construction site in Washington, D.C. on January 16, 1976 produced two citations: debris not cleared from work areas under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.25(a), and unguarded temporary lights under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.401(j)(1). Hyman admitted both violations. The case was…
Asplundh Tree Expert Co.
A judge who stamps four witnesses "not credible" without saying why forfeits the deference credibility findings normally get
A compliance officer watched Asplundh crew foreman Anderson trim trees away from utility lines from an aerial lift bucket twenty-five feet up near the University of Missouri campus in Rolla. A body belt was in the bucket with him. He was not wearing it. Asplundh admitted the belt was off and…
Tampa Barge Service
The Secretary withdraws his own petition for review, and the judge's decision stands without Commission precedent
This is a one-paragraph order, not a merits decision. The Secretary of Labor had petitioned for discretionary review of the administrative law judge's decision, which is what brought the case before the Commission. He then moved to withdraw that petition. The Commission granted the motion. With no…
W. J. Lazynski, Inc.
A tunnel contractor who could not have predicted methane still had to test the air before sending anyone back down
Lazynski was building a sewer tunnel under the Fox River in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It sank a hundred-foot shaft and mined six hundred feet in ordinary air. When it hit a silt pocket in April 1975 and water started coming in, it sealed the tunnel with an air lock and worked under twelve pounds of…
Matter of Estrada
Reopening denied after deportation was lawful
The Board considered a motion to reopen filed by a Mexican respondent who had already been deported after being found deportable for knowingly and for gain helping another alien enter the United States unlawfully. The respondent argued that his deportation should be revisited because his criminal…
Matter of Cienfuegos
New Jersey civil-law adultery barred voluntary departure
The Board considered a Salvadoran respondent's motion to reopen deportation proceedings so he could seek voluntary departure after marrying a lawful permanent resident and legitimating his United States citizen child. The Board held that his cohabitation with another woman while he was still…
Gil Haugan d/b/a Haugan Construction Co.
Scaffold and improvised-lifting violations affirmed
At one construction site, subcontractor employees used a scaffold without guardrails or safe access and with planks extending too far or too little beyond their supports. The Commission held Haugan responsible as general contractor because the obvious violations were conditions it could reasonably…
Matter of Zapata
Appeal dismissed after reentry removed Silva protection
The Board considered a Mexican husband and wife who had been found deportable for entering the United States without inspection. The respondents argued that they qualified for suspension of deportation and that the Silva v. Bell injunction protected them while they waited for a visa, but they had…
Keco Industries, Inc.
With both sides asking the Commission to stay out, a suppression ruling stands unreviewed over a dissent about who decides what the public interest is
Judge Charles K. Chaplin suppressed the evidence from an OSHA inspection of Keco Industries, vacated the citations and dismissed the complaint. Neither side asked the Commission to review that ruling. Commissioner Cottine directed review on his own motion anyway. The Secretary then filed a position…
Matter of Cantu
Citizenship established despite nonexercise of jurisdiction
The Board reviewed deportation proceedings against a Mexican national who was born in the Horcon Tract, an area that was United States territory when he was born but was later transferred to Mexico. The government argued that the United States had effectively given up jurisdiction over the tract…
Kehm Construction Co.
Scaffold violation upgraded to willful
Kehm employees worked more than 20 feet above the ground on a scaffold and connecting runway that lacked required guardrails, midrails, and toeboards. The general contractor and another subcontractor repeatedly warned Kehm's vice president and foreman about the scaffold deficiencies over several…
Bristol Steel & Iron Works, Inc.
The Fourth Circuit fixed the test for the personal protective equipment standard, so the case goes back to the judge to apply it
This is a two-paragraph remand order. The Fourth Circuit had reviewed the Commission's decision and sent the case back with a specific instruction on how to decide whether Bristol Steel violated the construction personal protective equipment standard: ask whether, under the circumstances, a…
Matter of Shaw
$5,000 immigration bond upheld despite flawed reasoning
The Board reviewed a Jamaican respondent's request to reduce a $5,000 immigration appearance bond after his arrest in New York on criminal firearms charges. It held that pending criminal charges, the seriousness of those charges, and the manner of entry into the United States may be considered when…
Butler Lime and Cement Company
Telling a driver to watch out for overhead wires is not the same as telling him the crane must stay ten feet away
Butler delivers brick and cement around Milwaukee on flat-bed trucks fitted with crane booms, so one driver can haul a load and unload it alone. On March 15, 1972, driver Douglas Kapperman delivered bagged cement to a construction site, turned his truck around and parked it directly under 4800-volt…
Butler Lime and Cement Company
Crane power-line violation affirmed for inadequate training
A Butler delivery driver was electrocuted after the crane boom on his brick truck contacted or closely approached a 4,800-volt overhead power line. OSHA cited the requirement to keep cranes at least ten feet from lines rated 50 kilovolts or below. After the judge initially vacated the citation, a…
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.