Federal Agency Decisions
Federal workers' compensation appeals from the Department of Labor's Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB), federal-sector labor-relations cases from the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), Longshore Act and Black Lung Benefits Act appeals from the Department of Labor's Benefits Review Board (BRB), precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB), and whistleblower and other labor appeals from the Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB), each with a plain-English summary, the law it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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W.R. and Department of the Army, U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Armaments Command, Red River Army Depot, Texarkana, TX
W.R. (ECAB 13-1270): Injury claim and hearing denial affirmed
W.R., an Army equipment mechanic, reported hand, shoulder, and back symptoms after weeks of installing vehicle nets in Afghanistan. OWCP accepted the work activity but denied the injury claim. The Board found no qualifying physician opinion explaining how that activity caused a diagnosed condition…
J.S. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Chillicothe, OH
J.S. (ECAB 13-1054): Heavy equipment injury claim denial affirmed
J.S., a Veterans Affairs equipment clerk, reported back pain and leg symptoms while moving equipment at work. The Board accepted that he performed such activities. It found that his doctor noted his belief that work worsened the conditions but did not adequately explain which activities caused or…
D.A. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Edison, NJ
D.A. (ECAB 13-1043): Shoulder, wrist, and back claim denial affirmed
D.A., a postal clerk, attributed right shoulder, wrist, and lower back conditions to repetitive lifting, reaching, and other postal duties. Her doctors described several diagnoses and work activities, but the Board found their opinions lacked a detailed work history and a reasoned explanation of…
C.S. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Grand Rapids, MI
C.S. (ECAB 13-1037): Mail tray back injury claim denied
C.S., a postal carrier, reported back pain after turning while lifting a tray of mail at work. OWCP accepted that the event happened but denied her injury claim. The Board found that her physician diagnosed lumbar strain without explaining how the event caused it, and a checked causation box…
R.R. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Cleveland, OH
R.R. (ECAB 13-851): Appointment clerk wage capacity reduction reversed
R.R., a postal worker with accepted bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and a wrist sprain, had her compensation reduced based on an appointment clerk position. The Board found that the job was vocationally suitable but its lifting and hand-use demands exceeded restrictions stated by her treating…
B.H. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Southfield, MI
B.H. (ECAB 13-791): Schedule award barred after suitable work refusal
B.H., a postal letter carrier, had an accepted bilateral ankle condition. OWCP terminated her compensation in 1997 for refusing suitable work. She later sought a schedule award based on a physician’s 2012 impairment rating. The Board found that the date of maximum medical improvement came after the…
L.W. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Savannah, GA
L.W. (ECAB 13-736): General office clerk wage capacity finding affirmed
L.W., a postal carrier, received benefits for accepted right wrist conditions. OWCP reduced her wage-loss compensation based on a general office clerk position it found she could perform. The Board found that her treating surgeon’s restrictions allowed an eight-hour workday and that the position…
W.W. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center, Decatur, GA
W.W. (ECAB 12-1911): Disc conditions and disputed wage loss denied
W.W., a Veterans Affairs employee, had accepted lumbar spondylosis and related conditions from a 2006 injury. She sought to add two disc conditions and obtain wage-loss compensation for periods in 2009 and 2010. The Board found that the medical opinions did not explain how the work injury caused…
J.S. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Seattle, WA
J.S. (ECAB 12-1237): Termination of head injury benefits affirmed
J.S., a postal clerk, had accepted postconcussion syndrome, a head laceration, and a neck sprain after a door struck her at work. OWCP ended benefits effective June 2, 2011. The Board found that the neurologic and psychiatric second-opinion physicians gave reasoned opinions that the accepted…
Valcourt Building Services of Georgia, LLC
Window-cleaning citations vacated because franchisee was the employer
A Valcourt franchisee used rope-descent equipment to clean exterior windows on a high-rise building. OSHA cited Valcourt after observing that each worker's safety line and working line shared an anchorage point and that the safety line allegedly could not safely suspend a worker after a fall. The…
Performance Contracting, Inc., dba PCI
Three scaffold items affirmed as other-than-serious
Performance Contracting installed exterior insulation from a multilevel scaffold at a casino construction project. An opening below the scaffold was not barricaded, and the scaffold lacked interior toe boards in an area where smaller tools and materials could fall. The judge found employee exposure…
G.C. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Cincinnati, OH
G.C. (ECAB 13-1218): No additional hearing loss award
G.C., a postal worker, already had a schedule award for 26 percent binaural hearing loss. A later agency examination calculated a lower rating, so OWCP denied an additional award. The Board found that the newer test followed the required method and that other audiograms lacked the required…
H.W. and Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons, Tarrant, TX
H.W. (ECAB 13-1185): Asthmatic bronchitis disability period not established
H.W., a Bureau of Prisons employee, had an accepted work-related aggravation of acute asthmatic bronchitis and sought compensation for intermittent disability beginning in August 2010. The Board found that the additional physician reports did not give a reasoned explanation showing the accepted…
D.C. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Albany, NY
D.C. (ECAB 13-1179): Increased schedule award request returned for merits review
D.C., a postal worker, asked for a larger schedule award and submitted a new medical impairment report. OWCP treated his request as an untimely challenge to its July 14, 2010 denial of an additional schedule award and denied it for lack of clear error. The Board found that he alleged worsening and…
J.L. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Portland, OR
J.L. (ECAB 13-1010): New hearing evidence required merits review
J.L., a postal electronic technician, sought to reopen a denied hearing loss and tinnitus claim after a loud workplace noise. He submitted new physician reports comparing earlier and later hearing tests and addressing causation. The Board did not decide whether the injury was compensable, but found…
D.O. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Bellmawr, NJ
D.O. (ECAB 13-984): Neck and shoulder claim denial affirmed
D.O., a postal distribution clerk, attributed neck and both shoulder conditions to repetitive lifting, sorting, and other restricted duties. Her physician diagnosed the conditions and said they were work related. The Board found that he did not explain how the specific activities caused or…
C.R. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Chicago, IL
C.R. (ECAB 13-942): Hip and back claim and reopening refusal affirmed
C.R., a postal carrier, attributed right hip and back problems to carrying mail and climbing stairs. OWCP denied the injury claim, and she sought reconsideration. The Board found that her doctor’s work restrictions did not supply a diagnosis linked to the job duties or a reasoned explanation of…
R.B. and Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Ontario, CA
R.B. (ECAB 13-904): Right leg award increased by three percentage points
R.B., a Federal Aviation Administration employee, had accepted lumbar conditions and prior awards for 11 percent left leg and 27 percent right leg impairment. OWCP later combined the impairment ratings for both legs and awarded two additional percentage points without assigning them to the right…
R.G. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, San Diego, CA
R.G. (ECAB 13-874): Disability claim returned for impartial medical opinion
R.G., a postal mail handler, had accepted neck and back sprains from lifting a parcel. He sought disability compensation after stopping work, while also receiving treatment for multiple myeloma. His treating orthopedist said the work injury continued to cause disabling back problems. OWCP’s second…
C.M. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Aurora, IL
C.M. (ECAB 13-22): Right arm impairment award returned for independent examination
C.M., a postal mail carrier, had accepted bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and a right trigger thumb. She sought a larger schedule award for permanent impairment of her right arm. One physician rated impairment from the accepted conditions, while OWCP’s medical adviser found the evidence…
S.G. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Canandaigua Veterans Administration Medical Center, Canandaigua, NY
S.G. (ECAB 12-499): Injury claim denied under willful misconduct rule
S.G., a nurse at a veterans medical center, reported a back injury after stepping between two residents who were fighting. OWCP denied her injury claim on willful misconduct grounds. The Board credited coworkers’ accounts that a nurse warned staff to stay out of the fight and called for help before…
T.S. and Department of the Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command-Shipyards, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, VA
T.S. (ECAB 13-1268): Late request for written review denied
T.S., a naval shipyard mechanic, had received a schedule award after an accepted knee injury. He requested review of the written record more than 30 days after OWCP issued the award decision. The Board found that the late request gave him no right to that review. It also found that OWCP reasonably…
T.T. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Seattle, WA
T.T. (ECAB 13-1244): Late reconsideration requests rejected
T.T. sought another review of a previously denied recurrence of disability claim. Her two reconsideration requests arrived more than one year after the last merits decision. The Board found that the records she submitted did not show clear error in the earlier denial: some were already in the…
T.B. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Galvin, WA
T.B. (ECAB 13-1242): Late reconsideration requests failed to show error
T.B., a former postmaster, sought reconsideration of a claim for an alleged 1998 back injury that OWCP had rejected as filed too late. The Board reviewed only OWCP’s later refusals to reopen that claim. Her new requests repeated earlier arguments and did not show that the injury claim had been…
L.S. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Denver, CO
L.S. (ECAB 13-1173): No ratable impairment from accepted wrist injury
L.S., a nurse, injured her left hand in an elevator door, and OWCP accepted a left wrist contusion. She sought a schedule award for permanent arm impairment. Her physician assigned an impairment rating, but OWCP’s medical adviser found no ratable impairment after reviewing normal tests and the…
A.S. and Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Linthicum, MD
A.S. (ECAB 13-1141): Shoulder and elbow claim denial affirmed
A.S., a transportation security officer, attributed left shoulder and elbow conditions to handling luggage at work. Her doctors diagnosed sprains, but did not explain how the identified work activities caused or aggravated them. The Board therefore affirmed OWCP’s denial of the injury claim for…
B.V. and Department of the Navy, Commander Fleet Forces, Charleston, SC
B.V. (ECAB 13-1015): Hearing loss award returned for tinnitus assessment
B.V., a former naval shipyard painter, received a schedule award for 13 percent bilateral hearing loss after years of workplace noise exposure. The Board found that OWCP’s medical adviser calculated hearing loss but said the rating included tinnitus without adding any tinnitus impairment. The…
J.L. and Department of Homeland Security, Pine Valley, CA
J.L. (ECAB 13-996): One percent right arm award upheld
J.L., a border patrol agent, injured his right index finger and received a schedule award for one percent right arm impairment. He sought a larger award based on his physicians’ ratings. The Board found that one physician treated a six percent finger rating as a six percent arm rating without…
J.B. and Department of the Army, Fort Leonard Wood, MO
J.B. (ECAB 13-976): Workplace alarm exposure did not establish hearing loss claim
J.B., a nurse at an Army facility, claimed that workplace alarms caused hearing loss. The Board accepted that she had been exposed to the alarms, but found the medical evidence did not connect that exposure to her hearing loss. OWCP’s examining physician attributed her mild loss to age and…
W.B. and Department of the Navy, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA
W.B. (ECAB 13-639): Wage loss claim returned for merits review
W.B. challenged a reduction of his compensation to zero for failing to cooperate with vocational rehabilitation. After that reduction, OWCP developed new medical evidence, accepted additional left leg conditions, and restored him to compensation rolls beginning in February 2012. The Board found…
R.P. and Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Salem, OR
R.P. (ECAB 13-1215): New back diagnosis required merits review
R.P. claimed a lower back injury after lifting a box at work. OWCP had denied the claim and later refused to reconsider it. The Board found that a new physician report supplied a lumbar sprain diagnosis and linked the condition to the reported incident, information the earlier reports had not…
L.N. and Department of Health & Human Services, Social Security Administration, Pine Bluff, AR
L.N. (ECAB 13-1118): Reconsideration request received after deadline
L.N. sought reconsideration of an earlier compensation decision involving her accepted foot injury. Her attorney argued that several delivery attempts had been made before the deadline. The Board found that the correctly addressed request reached OWCP after the deadline, and the record did not show…
J.F. and Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National Monument, Liberty Island, NY
J.F. (ECAB 13-1103): Withdrawn request did not preserve reconsideration deadline
J.F. sought reconsideration of a denied back injury claim. He had submitted a timely request, but his attorney then told OWCP to take no further action until more medical evidence was available. The Board treated that request as withdrawn and found that the later request arrived after the one year…
M.M. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Trenton, NJ
M.M. (ECAB 13-1094): Back claim lacked a reasoned causation opinion
M.M., a postal driver safety instructor, reported back pain after driving over a bump in a postal vehicle. OWCP accepted that the incident happened but denied the injury claim. His orthopedist said the bump aggravated several disc herniations shown on an earlier scan. The Board found that the…
A.M. and Department of the Army, Red River Army Depot, Texarkana, TX
A.M. (ECAB 13-1063): Shoulder injury claim denial affirmed
A.M., an Army depot clerk, reported a shoulder injury while moving a water cooler from his truck. The Board found he had not shown that this activity was part of his work or incidental to the employer’s business. The record also gave inconsistent accounts of what he moved and how the injury…
C.L. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Administration Medical Center, New Orleans, LA
C.L. (ECAB 13-917): Workplace fall established; injury claim returned
C.L., a VA laborer, fell in a workplace hallway and reported facial and dental injuries. OWCP denied the claim because accounts differed on whether the fall involved slipping or tripping. The Board found that the accounts still established the fall at work, and the record did not show a personal…
A.S. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Raleigh, NC
A.S. (ECAB 13-821): Right wrist claim lacked supporting medical evidence
A.S., a postal mail handler, claimed that work caused a torn ligament in her right wrist. OWCP asked for medical evidence identifying the condition and explaining its connection to her job duties. The only medical document she submitted concerned a fractured right toe. The Board found no medical…
W.C. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Rochester, NY
W.C. (ECAB 13-705): Full time wage capacity finding reversed
W.C., a former postal letter carrier with accepted back and knee injuries, challenged a wage capacity finding based on full time customer service work. The physicians initially disagreed about physical restrictions, but both said he could work four hours a day. The referee physician addressed those…
R.K. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, New Orleans, LA
R.K. (ECAB 13-467): Compensation reduction based on cashier work upheld
R.K., a former postal clerk with an accepted lumbar disc condition, received wage loss compensation. OWCP reduced it after finding that a cashier job represented her ability to earn wages. The Board found that the job’s physical demands fit the restrictions in a functional capacity evaluation and…
Safway Scaffolding d/b/a Safway Services, LP
Untrained scaffold dismantler item affirmed after fall
Safway erected and dismantled extensive scaffolding inside an aircraft hangar. A ground-crew laborer without scaffold-dismantling training was allowed by his crew leader to join the dismantling work, then fell about 21 feet after tying off to a horizontal bar that dislodged. The judge found the…
Maralex Disposal, LLC
In re Maralex Disposal, LLC (EAB SDWA Appeal No. 13-01): Appeal dismissed as untimely
Maralex Disposal, LLC, a Colorado oil and gas produced-water disposal company, received a Region 8 Initial Decision assessing an $88,900 penalty for violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Underground Injection Control regulations. Maralex tried to file its appeal on August 15, 2013, but…
J.L. and Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Alturas, CA
J.L. (ECAB 13-1529): Case returned to combine records and issue decision
J.L. appealed an OWCP letter refusing to reopen a claim and saying the case was permanently closed. The Board treated that letter as a final adverse decision even though it lacked appeal rights. It could not review the refusal because OWCP had retrieved the original claim file but had not combined…
T.J. and Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Richmond, VA
T.J. (ECAB 13-1271): Reconsideration request supplied no new evidence
T.J., an IRS systems analyst, sought reconsideration of a denied back injury claim. She said a physician report had been submitted with her request but lost by OWCP. The Board found that the record did not show OWCP had received that report or any other new evidence with the request. It also found…
I.K. and Department of Defense, Defense Logistics Agencies, Fort Belvoir, VA
I.K. (ECAB 13-1252): Hip claim lacked explanation of work incident's effect
I.K., a Defense Department transportation specialist, reported twisting his left leg on steps at work. OWCP accepted that the incident occurred, and medical records showed avascular necrosis of the left hip. His physician said the incident aggravated that condition, but did not explain how the…
R.B. and Department of the Army, Army National Guard, Montgomery, AL
R.B. (ECAB 13-1167): Hearing award overpayment returned for combined record
R.B. appealed an overpayment finding that followed a second schedule award for bilateral hearing loss. OWCP said an earlier award already covered more impairment than the later award, but the earlier claim file was not before the Board. The Board found that the files needed to be combined to…
B.E. and Department of Homeland Security, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, White Deer, PA
B.E. (ECAB 13-1130): Additional knee conditions not linked to accepted injury
B.E., an immigration enforcement agent, had an accepted left knee injury from defensive tactics training. He sought coverage for additional knee conditions. One physician said those conditions appeared to have been worsened by the fall, but did not explain how the accepted injury caused or…
D.A. and U.S. Postal Service, Postal Inspection Service, Newark, NJ
D.A. (ECAB 13-1117): No increase in left arm impairment award
D.A. sought a larger schedule award after an accepted left arm contusion. Earlier reviews had required another impartial medical examination. The Board found that OWCP documented its selection of the new referee physician and that the physician reviewed the record and found no lasting impairment…
J.E. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Burlington, VT
J.E. (ECAB 13-1098): Foot injury claim lacked qualifying medical opinion
J.E., a postal clerk, reported that a nail punctured her right foot while she moved mail cages at work. OWCP accepted the work activity but found no qualifying medical evidence connecting it to an injury. The reports came from a nurse practitioner, and other discharge instructions were unsigned and…
V.W. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Spokane, WA
V.W. (ECAB 13-1045): Disability recurrence not linked to accepted wrist condition
V.W. had an accepted bilateral carpal tunnel condition and later claimed a recurrence of disability beginning in January 2011. Her physician attributed her inability to work to the old injury, but did not explain how it caused the later disability or address her intervening work outside the Postal…
M.L. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, McGrath, AK
M.L. (ECAB 13-442): Back condition rescission and benefit termination upheld
M.L., a postal postmaster, had received benefits for a back condition after moving parcels. OWCP later rescinded its acceptance of a thoracic subluxation because no x-ray showed that condition, which was necessary for the treating chiropractor’s diagnosis to count under FECA. The Board also found…
C & C Roofing
Late contest dismissed and $2,000 citation affirmed
OSHA issued C & C Roofing one serious citation with a proposed $2,000 penalty after inspecting a Colorado Springs worksite. The company filed its notice of contest 48 days late. It did not respond to the Secretary's dismissal motion or the judge's order to show cause, and it offered no basis for…
S.B. and U.S. Postal Service, Sappington Branch, St. Louis, MO
S.B. (ECAB 12-1920): Short disability claim returned for medical referee
S.B., a postal letter carrier with an accepted shoulder injury, sought wage loss compensation for parts of June 19 through 21, 2012. His treating physician linked shoulder symptoms and treatment to the work injury, while an OWCP referral physician did not find a direct connection. The Board found a…
E.S. and Department of the Army, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Fort Monmouth, NJ
E.S. (ECAB 12-916): Seven percent right arm award upheld
E.S. received a schedule award for seven percent right arm impairment after an accepted elbow fracture. He sought a larger award, citing a prior referee physician’s higher rating. The Board found that the first referee had not adequately explained that rating and that OWCP properly selected another…
R.B. and Department of Labor, Mine Safety & Health Administration, Oakwood, VA
R.B. (ECAB 13-1197): Respiratory claim not reopened on repeated evidence
R.B., a retired mine inspector, sought reconsideration of a denied claim involving pneumoconiosis or silicosis. He submitted a physician report about chest images and lung testing. The Board found that the report repeated opinions already in the record and offered no new evidence or relevant legal…
S.S. and U.S. Postal Service, Processing & Distribution Center, Toledo, OH
S.S. (ECAB 13-1163): Repeated records did not reopen hand claim
S.S., a postal processing clerk, sought reconsideration of a denied right hand occupational disease claim. OWCP had accepted her description of mail handling duties but found the medical evidence insufficient to link them to a hand condition. With her new request, she submitted copies of medical…
R.O. and Department of Homeland Security, Customs & Border Protection, Brownsville, TX
R.O. (ECAB 13-1036): Six percent bilateral hearing award upheld
R.O., a customs canine enforcement officer, received a schedule award for six percent bilateral hearing impairment from workplace noise. He sought a larger award. An examining physician calculated a small measurable hearing loss and added impairment for tinnitus that affected daily activities…
M.W. and Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Elmira-Corning Regional Airport, Rochester, NY
M.W. (ECAB 13-948): Disability recurrence not tied to accepted conditions
M.W., a transportation security manager, stopped working months after a fall on ice at work and claimed renewed disability. Her doctors described worsening neck symptoms and a new cervical disc herniation, but did not explain that her work stoppage resulted from a worsening of the conditions OWCP…
M.F. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Show Lo, AZ
M.F. (ECAB 13-807): Total disability recurrence not established
M.F., a rural postal carrier, had accepted hip and head injuries after a fall and returned to modified part time work. She later claimed that she could no longer perform even those duties. Her physician placed her off work and listed symptoms, but did not explain why the accepted conditions…
C.J. and Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Prison Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
C.J. (ECAB 13-806): Three percent right arm award upheld
C.J., a Bureau of Prisons clerk, had accepted right carpal tunnel syndrome and elbow tendinitis. OWCP awarded three percent right arm impairment, and she sought a larger award based on her surgeon’s 10 percent estimate. The Board found that the surgeon had not explained his calculation under the…
D.A. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN
D.A. (ECAB 13-794): Sidewalk fall claim returned for premises inquiry
D.A., a nurse, fell on a sidewalk while walking to a VA medical center before her shift. OWCP denied her claim on the ground that the fall happened off the employer’s premises. The Board found that the record did not clearly establish how much control the medical center had over the adjoining…
What these documents are
- The agencies: Federal workers' compensation appeals from the Department of Labor's Employees' Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB), federal-sector labor-relations cases from the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), Longshore Act and Black Lung Benefits Act appeals from the Department of Labor's Benefits Review Board (BRB), precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB), and whistleblower and other labor appeals from the Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB). Each decision page names its agency.
- Commission, Board and Authority decisions: Rulings by the agency's highest review level (the Commission at OSHRC and FMSHRC, the Authority at FLRA, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Administrative Review Board at Labor, and 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.