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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E. C. Ernst, Inc.
Delayed hard-hat item vacated, housekeeping affirmed
OSHA inspected Ernst's electrical work at a multi-employer construction site and issued a citation 69 days later. The hard-hat item involved an employee who left Ernst before the citation issued and could not later be located. The Commission affirmed vacation of that item because the delay…
Gelhaar Uniform Co.
Needle-guard violation affirmed, exit item vacated
Gelhaar manufactured uniforms using dozens of powered sewing machines without point-of-operation needle guards. The Commission affirmed that violation and its $30 penalty because the exposed needles could puncture operators and employee resistance did not excuse missing guards. It vacated a…
Abdo S. Allen Co.
Demolition, posting, and recordkeeping allegations vacated
A front-end loader operator was killed when he drove onto an underground tunnel roof despite repeated instructions and warnings to avoid it. The Commission affirmed the judge's order vacating every allegation. The employer could not reasonably have anticipated the experienced operator's conduct…
Safeway Stores, Inc.
Wheel-blocking violations affirmed before reconsideration
Safeway routinely loaded and unloaded semitrailers at three distribution facilities without wheel chocks or blocks. The Commission affirmed three violations of the truck-operations standard and penalties totaling $110. It vacated the parallel allegations under a second powered-industrial-truck…
Chicago Bridge & Iron Co.
Electrical and passageway items affirmed
Chicago Bridge & Iron was one of many contractors building nuclear-reactor containment vessels. OSHA cited improper attachment plugs, unguarded temporary bulbs, temporary lights suspended by unsuitable cords, 110-volt portable lighting in moist metal vessels, and hoses and cables obstructing…
Charles A. Davison & Margaret S. Davison, dba Davison Wood Products
Machine-guarding items affirmed without penalties
OSHA cited a small woodworking business for unguarded sanding machines, a jointer, saw belts and pulleys, and a rip saw, along with alleged electrical, spray-booth ventilation, and first-aid violations. The judge affirmed the four machine-guarding items without penalties. He vacated the electrical…
Shaffer Construction & Engineering Co.
Fatal trenching violations affirmed
Eight employees worked in an approximately eight-foot-deep trench cut into soft, wet, unstable soil near highway and railroad traffic. The walls were almost vertical, had no shoring or bracing, and one wall collapsed and killed an employee. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of the…
Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Forklift overhead-guard citation vacated
Anheuser-Busch operated 17 forklifts without overhead guards in brewery aisles bordered by stacked cans, bottles, kegs, and pallets. The judge found that the employer restricted those forklifts to operations without a foreseeable falling-object danger and that its stacking and handling practices…
J.M. Roofing Co.
Fatal crane power-line violation affirmed
A crane lowering roofing equipment contacted an energized 4,800-volt power line and electrocuted an employee. The foreman knew the crane was operating in the narrow area between the building and the line but took no effective action to maintain the required ten-foot clearance. The Commission…
West Allis Lime and Cement Company
Reverse-alarm citation vacated
A ready-mix concrete truck backed approximately 650 feet through a construction site without a reverse alarm or observer. The judge held that the truck driver's work was construction activity covered by the cited standard, but vacated because OSHA did not prove that the truck's rear view was…
Frozen Fruit Concentrates, Inc.
Forklift overhead-guard violation affirmed
A forklift operator removed a damaged overhead guard and used the truck for about six hours to stack cartons of frozen juice as high as 11 feet 3 inches. His supervisor saw the unguarded truck in operation. The Commission affirmed a serious violation because cartons stacked above the operator could…
Spring Air Mattress Co. of Colorado
Cotton-dust citation vacated for inconclusive sampling
Spring Air Mattress processed cotton linters into batting in a garnetting room where visible dust settled on employees and machinery. OSHA sampled two employees for about three and a half hours and calculated total dust concentrations of 3.15 and 2.90 milligrams per cubic meter, above the…
D. Fortunato, Inc.
Failure-to-abate notice vacated as premature
D. Fortunato did not contest a serious citation alleging missing scaffold guardrails and paid its $550 penalty. The citation was received on January 15 and required immediate abatement. OSHA reinspected the next day, found the condition uncorrected, and issued a failure-to-abate notice with an…
Atlantic Dry Dock Corporation and Atlantic Marine, Inc.
Late contest dismissed
Atlantic Dry Dock and Atlantic Marine settled an earlier citation case that required abatement of specified conditions. OSHA later issued a failure-to-abate notification with $7,982 in additional penalties. The companies did not file their notice of contest within the statutory 15-working-day…
Penn Central Transportation Company
Untimely railroad citations remained final
OSHA cited Penn Central for unsafe track conditions and multiple shop, office, electrical, housekeeping, and recordkeeping conditions at a Virginia rail yard. Penn Central did not timely contest the original citations, so the Commission held that they became final by operation of law and the…
Limbach Company, Inc.
Scaffold-base violation affirmed without penalty
Two employees worked from a tubular welded scaffold positioned over a seventh-floor shaft. The scaffold had originally been mobile, but its rear casters were removed and the rear legs were placed directly on a secured plank instead of adjustable or plain bases. The judge held that removing the…
Clarkson Construction Company
Subcontractor dump-truck violation affirmed
A subcontractor's dump truck backed along a highway-construction work area without a reverse alarm or an observer and fatally injured a Clarkson flagman. Clarkson directed where the subcontractor's trucks loaded and unloaded, controlled their operation within the project, and used them in its work…
Larry D. Mack, General Contractor
Three construction items affirmed without penalties
OSHA cited six conditions at a small construction project. The judge affirmed a technical open-wiring violation because a partially covered energized panel remained accessible, a stair-railing violation because carpenters were using the stairs, and a fire-extinguisher violation because travel…
Southern Railway Company
Nine repair-shop items affirmed
OSHA cited ten conditions at Southern Railway's Spartanburg maintenance and repair facility, including spray-area lighting, welding-fume exposure, sanitation, fixed ladders, scaffolds, and welding-screen protection. The Commission rejected the railroad's claim that Department of Transportation…
Union Pacific Railroad Company
Five repair-shop items affirmed
OSHA cited eight conditions in Union Pacific's Cheyenne machine and wheel shops. The Commission affirmed five items involving missing crane load markings, uncaged access ladders, absent crane inspections, uninspected fire extinguishers, and missing extinguisher maintenance tags, with $295 in…
Illinois Terminal Railroad Company
Floor-opening item affirmed, recordkeeping item vacated
Illinois Terminal left a 10-to-12-foot-deep diesel-shop floor opening guarded only by a thin cloth rope, with reinforcing rods extending upward from the pit. The railroad admitted the condition, and the Commission affirmed the floor-opening violation and its $90 penalty because the Department of…
Union Pacific Railroad Company
Railroad office fire-safety items affirmed
OSHA cited Union Pacific's Pocatello yard office for using unsuitable fire protection around energized equipment, failing to mark exits and misleading doors, and obscuring a carbon-dioxide extinguisher behind a partition. The railroad did not rebut the conditions but argued that Federal Railroad…
Tolar Construction Company
Masonry-wall collapse violation affirmed
Tolar constructed a concrete-block wall approximately 20 to 30 feet high without pilasters and with inadequate temporary bracing. A strong wind collapsed the wall while employees were working nearby, and blocks landed as far as 200 to 300 feet from its base. The Commission affirmed a serious…
Union Railroad Company
Aerial-lift fall-protection violation affirmed
Eight Union Railroad employees used an aerial lift to spray-paint the underside of a bridge about 30 feet above lower surfaces. None wore a body belt with a lanyard attached to the boom or basket, and one employee fell from the basket and died. The railroad stipulated that the condition was likely…
A & W Drill Rentals and Leroy Crandall and Associates
Power-line citations vacated
A & W operated a truck-mounted soil-drilling rig near energized overhead lines while working for Leroy Crandall and Associates. The experienced A & W foreman knew the line was present, but raised the boom into it and an A & W employee handling a guy line was electrocuted. The judge found that A & W…
National Cleaning Contractors, Inc.
Elevator-shaft hazard violation affirmed
A cleaning employee was instructed to use tools to trip an elevator hoistway door's emergency release. He was not warned that the elevator car might be absent, opened the door, stepped into the shaft, and fell 23 feet, sustaining injuries that required hospitalization. The supervisor had taught the…
Chicago Bridge and Iron Company
Fall-protection and scaffold items affirmed
Two employees worked 19 and 29 feet above ground on penetration tubes and unsecured planks without tying off, with exposed reinforcing steel below. The Commission affirmed the serious personal-protective-equipment violation and an increased $850 penalty because supervisors could have discovered the…
Fulton Instrument Company
Mercury-vapor citation reclassified
Fulton manufactured clinical thermometers and exposed employees to mercury-vapor concentrations above the standard's allowable ceiling. The judge upheld the mercury standard as a valid national consensus standard and found the inspection lawful. He reclassified the citation from serious to…
John W. McGrath Corporation
Omitted hard-hat item remained final
McGrath's notice of contest expressly challenged citation items 2 and 3 but omitted item 1, which alleged that longshore employees lacked required protective hats. At the hearing, McGrath said the omission was a typographical error and sought to defend item 1 while withdrawing its contest to the…
Johns Manville Sales Corporation
Housekeeping and fire-protection items affirmed
Johns Manville employees worked on a construction floor containing scrap lumber with protruding nails, combustible debris, and inadequate fire-protection coverage. The judge affirmed one housekeeping item for $30 and held that two additional debris and container allegations merged into that same…
Southern Pacific Transportation Company
Railroad shop items affirmed, recordkeeping item vacated
Southern Pacific Transportation Company operated a railroad shop facility in Houston, Texas. It admitted that it had not displayed the required OSHA poster, maintained the required injury and illness log, kept a monthly signed inspection report for crane hoist attachments, or marked each…
Koppers Co., Inc.
Coke-oven citation dispute remanded for a hearing
OSHA cited Koppers Co., Inc. over employee exposure to coal tar pitch volatiles during coke-oven operations and over respirator protection. The alleged serious violation concerned the absence of feasible engineering or administrative controls and protective measures for a shift foreman and pusher…
Prineville Mouldings, Inc.
Trim-saw citation vacated, floor-opening item affirmed
Prineville Mouldings, Inc. manufactured lineal pine moulding at a plant in Prineville, Oregon. OSHA cited eight unguarded trim saws as hand-fed crosscut table saws, an uncovered floor opening leading to a conveyor, and unguarded power-transmission parts on woodworking machinery. The judge found…
Northeast Stevedoring Co., Inc.
Unsecured-pontoon violations affirmed
Northeast Stevedoring Co., Inc. loaded and unloaded cargo aboard the S/S Hermes and S/S Socrates at a Brooklyn pier. OSHA cited the company for serious violations involving hatch pontoons that were not secured against accidental displacement while employees worked cargo nearby. The judge found that…
Wiley N. Jackson Company and Moore Brothers Company, Inc., a Joint Venture, d/b/a Mojac Company
Flagman-garment violation affirmed
Mojac Company was performing road and bridge construction near Interstate 95 and Glebe Road in Arlington, Virginia. An employee directing traffic around a painters' scaffold was not wearing the required red or orange garment when a backing company truck struck and killed him. The company had…
American Airlines, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA cited American Airlines, Inc. after an inspection of its aircraft maintenance and engineering center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The contested item alleged that employees working on an aircraft's tail and wing did not use safety belts or other required personal protective equipment. American received…
George V. Hamilton, Inc.
Promptness dismissal reversed for a hearing
OSHA inspected George V. Hamilton, Inc. on December 15, 1972, and issued a serious citation 89 days later. Before holding a hearing, the judge ordered the Secretary to justify the delay under the Act's requirement that citations be issued with reasonable promptness. When the Secretary declined, the…
Scotty Smith Construction Co., Inc.
Crane violation affirmed and saw allegation vacated
Scotty Smith Construction was the general contractor for additions to a YMCA building in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. A company employee was electrocuted while handling a concrete bucket after the boom of a leased crane contacted energized overhead power lines. The judge found that the company chose the…
O'Dell Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Inc.
Serious trenching violations affirmed
O'Dell Plumbing, Heating & Cooling was installing a storm drain at a hospital construction project in Liberty, Missouri. OSHA cited the company after employees worked in an approximately 14-foot-deep trench whose unstable sides were not adequately supported or sloped and whose spoil piles were…
Clarence Martin, d/b/a Martin Masonry Company
Penalties reduced for small masonry contractor
Martin Masonry Company was completing a penthouse on the roof of a six-story building in Oakland, California. The company conceded violations involving an employee working near the roof edge without a safety belt, a masonry-saw operator without goggles, makeshift fasteners on a material hoist, and…
Bechtel Corp.
Citations vacated for lack of employee exposure
Bechtel served as engineer and construction manager at the Trojan Nuclear Plant project in Oregon. OSHA cited housekeeping debris, compressed-gas cylinders without valve caps, and an unguarded recess at the construction site. Other contractors created the cited conditions, and the record did not…
George A. Hormel and Company
Reconsideration denied despite pending variance request
Hormel asked the Commission to reconsider an earlier decision requiring guardrails on the carcass side of a shaving platform. The company argued that it had applied for a variance and that strict compliance would create a greater hazard. The Commission found that Hormel had not proved alternative…
Plessey-Burton, Inc.
Housekeeping and emergency-water violations affirmed
Plessey-Burton cleaned, processed, and electroplated electrical components at a Los Angeles facility. The Commission affirmed a housekeeping violation based on acid spills and disorderly chemical-drum storage that created slipping and tripping hazards. It also affirmed a violation for failing to…
Bouma Post Yards, Inc.
Split mill-safety ruling affirmed with no penalties
Bouma Post Yards operated a small Montana mill that processed logs into fence posts. OSHA cited a broad group of conditions involving tanks, fuel dispensing, defective equipment, industrial trucks, machinery, welding cables, electrical grounding, wire rope, vehicle alarms, and fire extinguishers…
Colorado Fuel & Iron Steel Corp.
Serious hot-roll-line guarding violation affirmed
Colorado Fuel & Iron operated a steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado. Employees worked beside a roll table carrying steel bars heated above 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit at speeds of 15 to 20 miles per hour. The citation alleged that a recorder lacked protection from bars leaving the table and that a crop…
Tech-Steel, Inc.
$30 penalty assessed for obstructed aisles
Tech-Steel fabricated structural steel at a Utah facility. The company admitted that scrap metal, extension cords, welding leads, and hoses obstructed work areas, aisles, and passageways used with overhead cranes. The judge affirmed the violations but vacated the proposed $30 penalty. The…
Murro Chemical Co., Inc.
Conveyor hazard affirmed under general duty clause
Murro Chemical manufactured soap and fatty acids at a Virginia facility. OSHA initially cited an unguarded feed-conveyor worm gear under a machine-guarding standard, then amended the charge at the hearing to the general duty clause because the cited standard did not fit the condition. The judge…
Thorleif Larsen & Son, Inc.
$550 penalty restored for unanchored wall collapse
Thorleif Larsen & Son was the masonry subcontractor building a tall concrete-block wall at an Indianapolis construction site. The wall was left freestanding without being tied to the building's structural steel, and part of it collapsed, killing the company's foreman and seriously injuring three…
H. K. Ferguson Co.
Seven construction violations affirmed and two vacated
H. K. Ferguson was the contractor on a project to expand an Anheuser-Busch facility in Columbus, Ohio. The judge affirmed seven nonserious items involving debris, flammable-liquid storage, smoking warnings, compressed-gas cylinders, elevated runways, and safe access between elevations. He vacated a…
Scientific Coating Co., Inc.
Serious unguarded-scaffold violation affirmed
Scientific Coating employed painters at a power-plant construction project in Newark, New Jersey. An OSHA inspector observed two employees on the top platform of an approximately 18-foot scaffold without guardrails, midrails, or toeboards. The judge found that a fall could have caused serious…
Empire Art Products Co., Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced to $375
Empire Art Products assembled decorative products at a small New York workplace. A reinspection found that several electrical tools and machines remained ungrounded and that one of two cited exit-sign conditions remained uncorrected. OSHA did not prove that a compressed-air item remained unabated…
Tri-County Constructors, Inc.
Serious excavation violations affirmed with $1,200 penalties
Tri-County Constructors had employees working in deep ground openings at a Pennsylvania state-park project. One trench was about 18 feet deep, with its lower eight feet nearly vertical and without shoring, while another excavation had near-vertical walls, water, and unstable soil. The judge…
American Chimney Corp.
Ladder and scaffold violations affirmed at chimney job
American Chimney performed maintenance work on two chimneys approximately 240 feet high at a Camden, New Jersey facility. Its employees used sectional wooden ladders whose grooved ends lacked the required reinforcement, creating a risk that a rail could split and displace a rung. The company also…
Jack Shelton, d/b/a Jack Shelton Painting Contractor
Sandblasting item reduced to nonserious
Jack Shelton Painting Contractor used a rented sandblaster and a mobile scaffold at an Idaho construction project. The sandblasting nozzle lacked a manual operating valve, so the worker holding it had to signal another employee to shut off the equipment. The judge found a violation but reclassified…
Horne Plumbing & Heating Company
Serious trenching violations affirmed
Horne Plumbing & Heating was installing sewer pipe in a trench at a Georgia church project. A cave-in killed the job foreman and another employee, and the first inspection found undersized shoring in a roughly 17-foot-deep trench and excavated soil stored less than two feet from its edge. A later…
Marino Development Corp.
Trench violation affirmed and penalty reduced to $500
Marino Development was working in a trench in South Easton, Massachusetts. The trench was more than five feet deep in wet, unstable soil and lacked adequate shoring, support, or sloping. One side collapsed and killed the employee working inside, and the other side collapsed shortly afterward. The…
Otis Elevator Co.
Elevator-shaft citation vacated for lack of employee exposure proof
Otis Elevator was installing an elevator at a Colorado Springs bank construction site where a first-floor shaft opening had a seven-foot drop. OSHA cited the company under the floor-opening standard, and the judge amended the charge to the wall-opening standard, found the makeshift scaffold barrier…
F.E. Myers & Brothers Company
Paint-spill violation reduced and conveyor citation vacated
F.E. Myers manufactured pumps and used flammable paints and thinners in its Ohio plant. The judge found a serious violation for inadequate precautions against spills and ignition sources, plus nonserious violations involving a combustible spray-booth floor and an overhead conveyor, and assessed…
Sletten Construction Company
Unused-crane and bulldozer items vacated
Sletten Construction was building a bridge in Idaho and used cranes with damaged wire rope, defective booms, and broken cab glass. The judge also affirmed a canopy citation for a bulldozer used to grade ground and move rocks, plus two recordkeeping items, and assessed $750 in total penalties. The…
Brown-Lane Company
Settlement vacates cylinder items and affirms scaffold penalties
Brown-Lane was constructing additional facilities for an affiliated open-pit clay mining operation in Louisiana. OSHA cited five conditions involving gas cylinders and scaffolding, with proposed penalties of $40 each for the two scaffold items. In a settlement, the Secretary agreed to vacate the…
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.