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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Space Age Concrete & Masonry, Inc.
Fall-hazard items affirmed and four other citations vacated
Space Age Concrete & Masonry worked as a masonry subcontractor on a multistory building in Naples, Florida. Inspections found employees near uncovered elevator-shaft openings and working at unguarded edges without effective fall protection. The judge affirmed the floor-opening and…
Massman Construction Co.
General-duty violation affirmed for scaffold near power lines
Massman Construction employees were stripping forms beneath a Kansas City bridge using a 32-foot aluminum scaffold board located above energized power lines. To move the board around an obstructing beam, employees lowered and shifted it while attempting to maintain about two feet of clearance from…
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Unenclosed crane resistor-bank citation left in effect
Bethlehem Steel operated overhead cranes with unenclosed resistor banks along bridge walkways. Maintenance employees performed troubleshooting near energized banks while the cranes carried out normal operating functions, and one employee testified that he had been shocked by resistor banks many…
Cornell & Co., Inc.
Safety-net violation affirmed for steel connectors
Cornell & Co. was erecting steel for a building in Philadelphia. Two steel connectors walked exterior girders at the eighth-floor level without safety belts or nets, facing a possible 200-foot fall outside the structure. The judge found safety belts and lifelines impractical because they could…
Todd Shipyards Corporation
Scaffold citation reinstated and remanded for merits proceedings
A Todd Shipyards employee died after falling from a scaffold aboard the U.S.S. Camden during repair work in Seattle. OSHA cited the company for an alleged repeated serious violation of the ship-repair scaffold-railing standard and proposed a $10,000 penalty. The judge vacated the case on procedural…
Del Monte Corporation
Excessive-noise citation reinstated and remanded
OSHA cited Del Monte’s Tampa canning plant for excessive noise in nine identified production areas and required an engineering compliance program, but proposed no penalty. The judge dismissed the case because the citation and complaint did not specify detailed noise measurements, sources, exposed…
Howard P. Foley Co.
Debris and stair citations vacated under multi-employer defense
Howard P. Foley was the electrical subcontractor on a sewage-plant construction project in Newport News, Virginia. OSHA cited construction debris, hollow metal stair treads that were not filled, and open-sided stairs without railings, proposing $860 in penalties. The judge found that the general…
Sun Ray Lighting Co.
Sign-work fall-protection violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Sun Ray Lighting assigned two employees to repair an electric service-station sign about 75 feet above asphalt pavement. To save time, one employee climbed from the boom-truck basket into the sign and worked there for five to ten minutes without being tied off. The company argued that it furnished…
Dale Crampton Co.
Flat-roof guardrail citation vacated
Dale Crampton Company was reroofing a University of Arkansas building in Fayetteville. Three employees worked on an essentially flat roof about 27 feet above a concrete sidewalk, handling old roofing, new material, and hot asphalt near an 18-inch parapet. OSHA cited the lack of a standard railing…
Tower Crane Erection & Dismantling Co., Inc.
Scaffold access and guardrail citations affirmed
Tower Crane Erection & Dismantling performed specialized reinforcing-steel work on an Atlanta apartment project. Its employees climbed formwork to reach a scaffold about 16 feet above the ground because no ladder or equivalent access was provided, and the scaffold had no guardrails or safety-belt…
Hedges Neon Sales, Inc.
Steelworker guarding violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Hedges Neon Sales used a multipurpose steelworker with flat shears, a V-notcher, and a punch. OSHA originally cited a mechanical-power-press rule, then amended the charge without objection to the general point-of-operation guarding standard. The machine had movable guards, but operators could…
Consolidated Interior Systems, Inc.
Six site-safety items affirmed with reduced penalties
Consolidated Interior Systems was a drywall subcontractor at a New Jersey shopping-center project. Employees used ungrounded power tools and defective extension cords, worked around unguarded temporary bulbs and debris, and used a narrow mobile scaffold without guardrails or caster locks. The judge…
National Steel & Shipbuilding Co.
Three shipyard violations affirmed with reduced repeat penalty
National Steel & Shipbuilding was repairing the U.S.S. Roanoke at its San Diego shipyard. An abrasive blaster working outdoors with silica-free abrasive wore no respirator, and the judge held that the standard still required respiratory protection while permitting a less protective filter type. A…
Chrysler Corporation
Press-room noise abatement deadline extended
Chrysler sought more time to abate excessive noise in the press room of its Twinsburg, Ohio, plant, which produced vehicle doors and rear underbodies. The underlying violation was final because Chrysler had not contested it. The company documented engineering efforts involving quieter dolly wheels…
General Supply Company, Inc.
Mobile-scaffold guardrail citation vacated
General Supply used a manually propelled mobile scaffold while installing an acoustic ceiling in a fire-damaged store. A superintendent stood briefly on a board placed across the scaffold’s end guardrails, about nine feet above the floor, while holding a ceiling joist to check a laser level. OSHA…
Western Electric, Inc.
Vinyl-chloride monitoring citation vacated
Western Electric used a liquid containing polyvinyl chloride to coat small wire coils at its Missouri plant about once a month. The temporary vinyl-chloride standard required initial air monitoring where vinyl chloride was released to determine whether concentrations exceeded 50 parts per million…
Worley Brothers Granite Co.
Silica controls required for sandblasting but not detailed shaping
Worley Brothers manufactured granite monuments using sandblasting for basic engraving and finer shaping for letters and decorative designs. Air sampling found employee exposure to respirable silica above the applicable limits, although workers used supplied-air respirators. OSHA argued that…
Robert W. Blanchette, Richard C. Bond & John H. McArthur, Trustees of Penn Central Transportation Co.
Five facility violations affirmed and three vacated
OSHA inspected Penn Central’s engineering department at Boston’s South Station while the railroad was in bankruptcy reorganization. The judge added the three bankruptcy trustees as respondents because they controlled the railroad’s property, knew of the case from the beginning, and actively…
International Terminal Operating Co., Inc.
Hard-hat violation affirmed without repeat status or penalty
International Terminal Operating employed about eighty stevedores unloading frozen meat from a vessel in Port Newark. Six employees worked beneath loaded cargo slings without hard hats. The company issued hats, refused to sign in employees who lacked them, made paging announcements, and posted…
Merritt-Meridian Corporation
Commission upholds dismissal of a late written notice of contest
Merritt-Meridian Corporation was doing school construction in Wallkill, New York, when OSHA cited it for five safety violations and proposed a total penalty of $105. After receiving the penalty notice, the company had 15 working days to file a notice of contest. It told an OSHA representative…
Carr Erectors, Inc.
Steel-floor perimeter item affirmed and elevator-platform item vacated
Carr Erectors was performing steel erection on a high-rise building in Columbus, Ohio. On the thirteenth floor, employees accessed a temporary steel-and-rebar floor section with no perimeter protection next to a twelve-foot gap. The Commission held that the specific steel-erection perimeter rule…
Monroe & Sons, Inc.
Serious citations vacated after Rule 60 reopening
Monroe & Sons timely contested two serious citations but, while acting without counsel, did not separately answer the Secretary’s complaint because it believed the notice of contest was sufficient. The notice of contest was dismissed by default and the order became final, but the Commission later…
United States Steel Corp.
Coal-tar-pitch settlement approved
The Secretary and United States Steel settled citations alleging excessive exposure to coal tar pitch volatiles at coke-oven batteries in four plants. The Steelworkers accepted the settlement except for the Fairfield, Alabama plant, where it objected that the two-year abatement period lacked…
K & B Sheet Metal, Inc.
Three nonserious construction violations affirmed with $150 in penalties
K & B Sheet Metal, a sheet-metal subcontractor at a Suffolk Community College construction site, was cited after its employees worked amid concrete-block and brick debris and in building areas without the required firefighting equipment. The company also had not posted the required OSHA notice. The…
Don Helvig, d/b/a Don Helvig Excavating
Trench protection and exit violations affirmed with reduced penalty
Don Helvig Excavating was digging a sewer trench in a North Dakota mobile-home park. The trench was about seven feet deep in soft or average soil, with the lowest three to four feet nearly vertical, inadequate sloping above, and no shoring or bracing. Although the soil was dry and collapse was not…
Jimmy R. Carlson
Twelve migrant-housing violations affirmed without penalty
Jimmy R. Carlson provided a Nebraska farm house for a migrant worker family of twelve. OSHA cited twelve temporary-labor-camp conditions involving livestock near the house, unsanitary grounds, overcrowded sleeping rooms, a boarded window, unscreened doors, distant and unapproved water, a nearby…
B & B Motor & Control Corp.
Exit and extinguisher penalties reduced to $280
B & B Motor & Control used a basement for storage and electronic-controller assembly by three employees. Two fire-exit doors were secured with bars, access or discharge was obstructed, and the exit signs were not illuminated. The company did not contest those violations but challenged the proposed…
Seattle Stevedore Co.
Hatch-tender fall-protection violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Seattle Stevedore was loading logs aboard two vessels in the Port of Tacoma. Three hatch tenders stood on stowed hatch pontoons flush with the offshore gunwales so they could signal winch operators who could not see the logs below. The signalmen had no gunwale protection, life jackets, lifelines…
Pabst Brewing Company
Noise case revived and discovery inspection granted
Pabst was cited for allegedly failing to use feasible engineering or administrative controls for excessive brewery noise. The judge granted Pabst summary judgment after the Secretary admitted he could not then prove that available controls would reduce noise to the limits in Table G-16, and the…
Everett Stevedoring Company
Repeat hard-hat violation affirmed
Three Everett Stevedoring longshoremen were not wearing protective hats while logs were being hoisted aboard a vessel. Two worked on deck within the swing area of operating cargo gear, and one worked on a log boom beside the ship; all had access to hazards from the gear, slings, or falling debris…
Publix Meat Market #1034
Mesh-glove citation vacated
OSHA cited Publix for not providing metal mesh gloves to retail meat cutters who used knives for boning, trimming, and cutting. Applying the reasonable-person test used for the general personal-protective-equipment standard, the judge found that the Secretary had not established a nationwide…
Underhill Construction Corp. and DIC Concrete Corp., trading as DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Repeat serious perimeter-guarding violation affirmed
DIC-Underhill was cited after employees worked near unguarded edges on the fourth and fifth floors of a high-rise construction project. The judge found that perimeter guards sometimes had to be removed for specialized column work, but held the company responsible for completely removing the…
Hopkins Erection Company
Storage-rack general duty citation vacated
Hopkins employees stood on elevated storage-rack shelves while assembling a newly designed rack system. Two employees fell to lower shelves after bed frames slipped from laterally flexible support arms. The judge found that the erection process required the arms to remain unsecured until upper…
Weyerhaeuser Company
Sawmill citations largely reinstated
After two inspections of Weyerhaeuser’s Oregon lumber complex, the judge vacated most contested items. The Commission largely reversed. It affirmed excessive-noise subitems where even machinery-idling readings exceeded permissible levels for the employees’ work periods, while vacating subitems that…
Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Brewery noise-control violation affirmed
Anheuser-Busch was cited for failing to implement feasible engineering or administrative controls for excessive noise at brewery packaging equipment. The company challenged a continuance that allowed the Secretary to obtain expert testimony and disputed the judge’s reliance on that acoustical…
Alan Wood Steel Company
One crane limit-switch citation vacated, one conditionally affirmed
Alan Wood Steel was cited over malfunctioning upper-limit switches on two regularly used overhead cranes. Crane 69 passed the required slow-speed tests but failed a high-speed test. The Commission vacated that citation because the crane was not new or altered and the standards did not require…
Western Window Cleaning Service, Inc.
Fatal scaffold fall yields serious belt violation
Two window cleaners fell about 24 feet when a suspension-scaffold wire rope broke; one died and the other was seriously injured. Neither wore a safety belt or lifeline, although the company had issued the equipment. The judge held that the cited powered-platform provisions applied only to…
Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation
Noise-abatement deadline extended
Owens-Corning sought to extend two noise-abatement deadlines to December 31, 1976. The judge found that the company had installed operator booths with sound levels below 90 dBA, maintained an audiometric program, supplied hearing protection, and pursued engineering controls for noisy glass…
Publix Meat Market #1096
Mesh-glove and apron citation vacated
OSHA cited Publix for not requiring retail meat cutters to wear steel mesh gloves and aprons while boning, trimming, and cutting meat. The judge applied the industry-custom and reasonable-person tests used for the general personal-protective-equipment standard. The record contained no evidence of…
Southeastern Aluminum Products
Metal cut-off saw guarding citation vacated
Southeastern used two Rockwell cut-off machines with metal saw blades rather than abrasive wheels. OSHA alleged that the manufacturer-supplied guards were inadequate under the general machine-guarding standard, while the company argued that the machines and guards were designed under the…
Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric Company
Contested trenching items vacated
The utility’s employees worked in an 8-to-10-foot-deep trench protected by plywood sheeting, hydraulic jacks, and sloped upper walls. OSHA alleged inadequate support in soft or unstable soil, insufficient close sheeting, and a need for additional bracing because a parked backhoe was near one end…
Seattle Stevedore Company
Serious cargo-edge fall hazard affirmed
Two longshoremen worked atop a 26-foot-high stack of steel pipe while unloading a vessel. For about an hour they crawled to the aft ends of the pipe beside an unguarded three-foot opening to the hold floor, without a safety net, belt, or equivalent protection. The judge found a serious violation…
Yonkers Plate Glass, Inc.
Serious balcony fall hazard affirmed
Two Yonkers Plate Glass employees installed metal trim on an unguarded fourth-floor balcony about 40 feet above ground, working as close as three feet from the edge without belts or lifelines. The judge credited the compliance officer’s identification of the workers and imputed the foreman’s…
Central Building and Cleaning Co., Inc.
Scaffold and protective-equipment violations affirmed
An employee sandblasted from a two-point suspension scaffold 24 feet above a Chicago sidewalk. The judge found that the cornice hooks were securely installed, but the scaffold was improperly tied to window-cleaner anchors, the sandblaster lacked a safety belt and lifeline, and required rails and…
L. H. Sowles Company
Construction-site exposure citations affirmed
These consolidated cases involved three construction sites. At a North Dakota power plant, debris obstructed walkways and cutting waste fell through floor holes into an incompletely barricaded area; both nonserious items were affirmed, with a $45 penalty for housekeeping and none for falling…
Kennedy Houseboats, Inc.
Machine-guarding citation affirmed without penalties
Kennedy Houseboats contested point-of-operation guarding allegations involving double-angle saws, a Pexto shear, and the shear and punch on a Dvorak Iron Worker, while several other electrical and machine-guarding items remained contested only as to penalty. The judge found that employees’ hands…
Central Contracting Corporation
Roof-edge and air-shaft violations affirmed
At a hospital addition, a crane operator worked near the unguarded edge of an elevator-tower roof about 20 feet above a scaffold, and an unguarded air-shaft pit lay beside an employee walkway. The company conceded both violations but disputed their classification and penalties. The judge found the…
Union Steel Erectors, Inc.
Willful crane-riding and fall violations affirmed
OSHA observed Union Steel employees riding a crane hook, headache ball, and suspended steel loads 50 to 70 feet above the ground. The foreman knowingly allowed the practice for about a week, the general contractor had warned him it violated safety rules, and the crane operator knew it was…
Savina Home Industries, Inc.
Failure-to-abate notification vacated
Savina received a failure-to-abate notification after a follow-up inspection concerning an injury log, first-aid training, and a welding hood hanging on a fire extinguisher. The Commission explained that a prima facie failure-to-abate case requires a final original citation and the identical…
The Mayronne Company
Fatal derrick-ladder violation reduced from willful to serious
A derrickman fell 60 to 70 feet to his death while helping move a snatch block during rig-down. A ladder rung had only three to four inches of clearance behind it, and the rig’s counterweight ladder-safety system was unavailable after the derrick crown had been telescoped down. The worker also was…
Huron Culvert and Tank Company
Rivet-punch and shear guarding violations affirmed
Two Stamco rivet-and-punch machines required a helper to place a hand beneath the punch and rivet hammer at least once during each culvert assembly, and no guarding device was present. The judge found that interlocking dual controls could be installed and that possible production slowdown or…
Charles Vrana & Son Construction Company
Fatal roof-fall violations affirmed
Vrana employees repaired a tornado-damaged metal roof with loose sheets and open areas up to about 32 feet above ground. An apprentice stepped on an unsecured sheet and fell through the roof to his death. The judge found that workers received only general directions to remove debris and install…
Ruedy’s Auto Shop
Spray-painting violations affirmed with reduced penalty
Ruedy’s small auto-body shop admitted several spray-painting violations, including inadequate mechanical ventilation, ignition sources, missing no-smoking signs, uncovered waste containers, and excessive flammable material. The judge found their cumulative effect serious because six employees faced…
Arthur and Toni Sheets, doing business as Sheets Tree Expert Company
Repeat hard-hat violation affirmed with $10 penalty
An employee of the small tree-trimming company worked beneath a large limb being lowered by a boom truck without wearing a protective helmet. The company had supplied hard hats, face shields, ear guards, and protective glasses, but employees resisted using them. The judge held that employee…
Alatex, Incorporated
Sewing-machine apparatus items affirmed as de minimis
The four consolidated cases concerned whether the power-transmission standard applied to industrial sewing-machine apparatus. At Alatex’s request, proceedings were stayed pending the Commission’s decision in Van Raalte, which the company agreed would control. After that decision, one contested item…
Arizona Public Service Co.
Full controls required on each aerial-lift platform
Arizona Public Service used a truck-mounted double-spinner aerial lift with two employee platforms. One platform had full boom, trolley, and swinger-arm controls, while the other could control only its swinger arm, brake, and dump valve. The Commission held that applicability turned on whether the…
Roof Engineering Corporation
Flat-roof guardrail citation vacated
Roof Engineering employees installed roofing material on an open-sided flat penthouse roof. The Commission affirmed vacation of the guardrail citation because, under its intervening Central City Roofing precedent adopting the Fifth Circuit’s Diamond Roofing reasoning, the open-sided-floor standard…
John Hassall, Inc.
Fastener-plant noise citation vacated
John Hassall’s fastener plant exposed machine operators to noise of roughly 95 to 102 decibels. The Secretary proposed enclosing machines with rated plastic curtains, but the judge found that approach unproven and impractical because it would not reduce noise inside the enclosure, would interfere…
C. A. Spalding Company
Mechanical-press guarding violation affirmed
C. A. Spalding’s tool-and-die shop used mechanical power presses for slow, experimental forming work without point-of-operation devices that kept both of an operator’s hands outside the press. Employees sometimes adjusted material by hand or with a push stick while inching the press. Although no…
The Pioneer Company
Trench and retaining-wall violations affirmed
Pioneer employees worked in a narrow trench between a 15-foot retaining wall and a nearly vertical excavated hillside made of shattered shale, sandstone, fill, and seeping material. The trench had no adequate shoring or slope. Other employees, including a foreman, used the unguarded 18-inch-wide…
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.