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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Matter of Ferreira
Half sisters qualify through a shared stepmother
A United States citizen petitioned for a visa for her older half sister. The older sister could not qualify as their father's child for this purpose because she was born out of wedlock and was not legitimated before age 18. But their father married the older sister's mother while the petitioner was…
Matter of Csonka
Guaranteed loans were not the applicant's investment
The Regional Commissioner reviewed a visitor's application to change status to treaty investor after he acquired a 51 percent interest in a Texas restaurant business. The business's $30,000 in notes was guaranteed by another person, and the record did not show that the applicant had invested any of…
Jake Heaton Erecting Co., Inc.
Steel erection standards do not cover a single-story building, so the vacated fall protection subpart is reinstated
Heaton was building a steel plant and an adjacent two-story office building in Cartersville, Georgia. OSHA cited it for a serious violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), the standard requiring employers to require personal protective equipment where employees are exposed to hazardous conditions. The…
Camden Drilling Co.
An employer is responsible for hazards on equipment it neither owns nor uses when it controls the worksite and sends its own employee there
Camden owned a barge that was tied to a dock for major repairs, and it hired Rogers Welding Service to help. Three Rogers welders were repairing leaks at the bottom of the barge. One of Camden's tool pushers, Young, assigned Camden's own employee Anders to assist them. The welders were using an…
Frank C. Gibson, Inc.
A pro se notice of contest that names only one item leaves the rest final, and a two-member impasse leaves the guardrail item vacated without precedential weight
Gibson was the mechanical contractor installing heating, ventilating and air conditioning at a new high school in Middletown, New Jersey. The building's second floor mezzanine overlooked the dining room 13 feet below. Instead of a standard guardrail, a 3/5 inch manila rope ran along the open edge…
General Telephone Co. of Michigan
Serious insulating glove citation affirmed because supervisory knowledge was imputed and no enforced work rule rebutted it
A three-man telephone line crew was sent to a rural site on May 27, 1975 to set a 35 foot pole and transfer cables to it. An overhead power conductor energized at about 4,800 volts ran from a second pole roughly 30 feet 9 inches above the ground. The pole had to be moved to a second hole about 4…
Finnegan Construction Co.
Three vacated items reinstated because the burden of proving a standard's exception falls on the employer
Finnegan was the carpentry subcontractor on an apartment construction project in Newark, Delaware. An OSHA compliance officer inspected the site and the company was cited for several items. Administrative Law Judge David H. Harris vacated three of them, and the Commission took up only those three…
Matter of Hajdu
Communist Party membership exception requires fuller evidence
A Hungarian citizen seeking adjustment of status said he joined the Communist Party after pressure from coworkers and an employer, and that he would have lost his job otherwise. The immigration judge denied adjustment because he already had a job when he joined. The Board held that existing…
Matter of Clahar
Jamaican acknowledgment did not establish sibling visa eligibility
A naturalized United States citizen petitioned for a visa for a woman he said was his sister through their common Jamaican father. Both were born outside marriage, and the record did not show that either mother married the father. The Board held that a sibling petition requires both people to…
Matter of Hranka
Nonimmigrant waiver granted after balancing three factors
A Canadian applicant sought advance permission for occasional visits to the United States after a prior deportation for prostitution. The District Director denied the waiver, finding too little time had passed to establish rehabilitation and that her reasons for visiting were not compelling. The…
Gibson Discount Center, Store #15
Eyewash citation vacated for lack of proof
Gibson operated a retail store with an auto service area where employees charged vehicle batteries. OSHA cited the store under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.151(c), alleging that suitable emergency flushing facilities were not readily available near the battery charger. The judge affirmed because the nearest…
E. M. Duggan, Inc.
Stair-rail citation conditionally affirmed
E. M. Duggan was a plumbing and heating subcontractor whose employees regularly used nine unguarded stairways at a multi-employer construction site. The company did not create or control the missing railings, and the judge vacated the citation under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(e)(1)(ii). The Commission…
4G Plumbing & Heating, Inc.
Open-ground citation vacated
4G Plumbing & Heating was one of three prime contractors on a Montana prison-farm construction project. OSHA found that a temporary receptacle installed by the electrical contractor had an open ground and cited 4G under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.401(c) because its employees used the outlet. The defect was…
Otis Elevator Company
Scaffold-access violation reduced to de minimis
Otis employees installing elevators worked from a 30-foot scaffold inside an elevator shaft and climbed built-in scaffold rungs spaced 18 inches apart. The judge found that the rungs were not equivalent to a proper access ladder under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(a)(13), affirmed a nonserious violation…
Valley Roofing Corporation; J. B. Eurell Company
Fall-protection citations vacated
Employees of Valley Roofing and J. B. Eurell worked near roof edges 13 and 29 feet above the ground without safety belts or another form of fall protection. OSHA cited both employers under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), but the judge vacated the citations because the Secretary did not show a feasible…
Gerard Leone & Sons, Inc.
Trench spoil citation affirmed
Gerard Leone & Sons was a general contractor performing trenching work in Massachusetts. OSHA found excavated material piled at the trench edge above employees working below and cited 29 C.F.R. § 1926.651(i)(1), which required the material to be kept at least two feet from the edge. The judge…
Matter of Wiesinger
District Director alone decides labor precertification
An Austrian visitor sought adjustment of status based on his work for the Unification Church. He claimed that missionary work qualified him for labor precertification under Schedule A. The District Director denied his application, and an immigration judge found that he had not shown the necessary…
Charles A. Gaetano Construction Corp.
Four serious citations affirmed
Charles A. Gaetano Construction was building a parking ramp when OSHA cited serious hazards involving an inadequately guarded saw, missing personal fall protection, incomplete floor-edge guardrails, and an unguarded carpenter's bracket scaffold. The company argued that an ANSI standard incorporated…
Matter of Reyes
Dominican acknowledgment did not establish legitimation
A lawful permanent resident petitioned for a preference visa for his son, who lived in the Dominican Republic. The father had acknowledged paternity, but the record did not show that he married the boy's mother. The Board held that acknowledgment alone did not give a child the same inheritance…
T. J. Service Company
Ladder penalty cut and extinguisher citation reinstated
T. J. Service operated an oil-well workover rig whose derrick man climbed an unprotected fixed ladder to a work platform about 44 feet above the ground several times each day. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.450(a)(5) because the ladder lacked a cage, offset…
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Pre-1971 crane citation vacated
OSHA cited Westinghouse for failing to guard rotating couplings next to a walkway on an overhead crane under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.179(e)(6)(i). The judge vacated the item because employees did not use the walkway during what he considered the crane's normal operating conditions. The Commission affirmed…
Matter of Rafipour
Registration conviction did not bar adjustment
An Iranian student was convicted of making false statements in an alien registration application. An immigration judge later granted him permanent resident status through a marriage to a United States citizen, and the immigration service appealed. The Board held that the conviction made him…
Robberson Steel Company
Commission upholds the inspections, denies dismissal, and remands for a merits hearing
OSHA inspected Robberson Steel Company's Oklahoma City facility after receiving written safety complaints, and a follow-up industrial hygiene inspection led to health-hazard citations. Robberson asked the administrative law judge to throw out the citations, arguing that the first inspection was…
Seaboard Coastline Railroad
Railroad-wide OSHA exemption rejected
Seaboard Coastline stipulated that cited workplace conditions violated OSHA standards and that the proposed penalty was appropriate. It argued, however, that railroads were exempt from the OSH Act under 29 U.S.C. § 653(b)(1) because the Department of Transportation regulates the industry. The…
Matter of Raol
Labor certification did not authorize continued employment
A student from India continued working for a Louisiana state agency after his immigration service work authorization expired. He sought to reopen deportation proceedings to apply for permanent residence after the Department of Labor issued a labor certification for his job. The Board held that the…
Favrot-Bellows, A Joint Venture
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed
OSHA alleged that Favrot-Bellows willfully violated fall-protection requirements stated in the alternative under three construction standards and proposed a $10,000 penalty. The judge instead affirmed a serious violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a) and assessed $500. On review, the employer expressly…
Hullenkremer Construction Co., Inc.
Scaffold penalty reduced
A Hullenkremer employee washed a newly erected school wall while standing on a scaffold 16 feet above the ground with no guardrails or toeboards. The company president admitted that the condition violated 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(a)(4), but explained that a mason had removed normally used guardrails…
Fattore Construction Company
Multiple citations and $1,680 affirmed
The judge affirmed five citations for serious violations and six of seven items in a citation for nonserious violations against Fattore Construction Company. Total penalties of $1,680 were assessed. Fattore challenged the judge's procedural handling of the case and many factual findings. After…
Borg-Warner Corporation
Serious asbestos exposure citation affirmed
At Borg-Warner's plumbing-products plant, an employee dusted plaster molds with NYTAL 200 talc in a visibly dusty operation. Multiple laboratory analyses found airborne fiber concentrations above the ceiling limit in 29 C.F.R. § 1910.93a(b)(3), and NIOSH electron microscopy and diffraction analysis…
Schultz's, Inc.
Commission declines review, leaving the judge's vacatur of a general-duty citation in place
Administrative Law Judge Henry K. Osterman had vacated a citation and proposed penalty against Schultz's, Inc. for an alleged violation of the general duty clause, section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act. Former Commissioner Moran directed the case for review "for error," bringing it to the full Commission…
Glendale Mills Inc.
Three violations affirmed and poster item vacated
Glendale Mills manufactured knitwear and clothing at a New York plant where OSHA found misleading exit doors, an unrailed stairway, a temporarily missing OSHA poster, and an inadequately guarded bench grinder. The judge affirmed the exit, stair, and grinder items but found that the company had…
Matter of Kotte
Pending visa petition did not require another continuance
A student from India conceded deportability after working without authorization. He had applied for a third-preference visa and adjustment of status, but his visa petition was still pending when the immigration judge resumed his hearing after one continuance. The Board held that the judge did not…
Matter of Nago
Specialty chef qualified as a treaty investor employee
A Japanese restaurant in Honolulu hired a chef from Japan to prepare Nabemono dishes and train its staff. An immigration judge found him eligible for admission as an employee of a treaty investor, and the immigration service appealed. The Board held that his specialized skill and training…
Minnotte Contracting & Erection Corporation
Roof fall-protection citation affirmed
Two Minnotte employees worked on a sloped roof 35 feet above the ground without a catch platform or safety belts attached to the available static line. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(u)(3). The employee-misconduct defense failed because Minnotte did not prove…
Lehr Construction Company
Broken-ladder and fall citations affirmed
Lehr employees used a ladder with a broken top rung as the only access to a work platform, and a welder straddled the top of an A-frame ladder near an unguarded platform edge about 25 feet above the ground without a safety belt. The Commission unanimously affirmed the broken-rung citation because…
Del-Cook Lumber Co.
Conveyor violation affirmed and platform penalty removed
At Del-Cook's sawmill, employees used a raised platform with a ten-foot unguarded edge and repaired a log conveyor by restarting it while maintenance work was still underway. During the usual chain-repair procedure, an employee continued holding a log with a cant hook as the conveyor restarted…
F. H. Sparks of Maryland, Inc.
Penalty-only contest and fall citation affirmed
In the first docket, F. H. Sparks expressly contested only the penalties for an uninsulated welding-cable connection and a safety-belt citation, while stating that both conditions were violations and had been corrected. The Commission refused to let the company later expand that clear notice into a…
Hughes Tool Company
Towel and aisle citations remain vacated
OSHA cited Hughes Tool over its method of issuing cloth hand towels and over forklift aisles that were not striped and were sometimes obstructed. The judge vacated both items, finding that employees carried individual towels and could exchange them, that machinery placement visually marked the…
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.
Pre-1971 crane citation vacated
OSHA cited Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.179(g)(2)(i), which requires crane electrical equipment to be located or enclosed so employees cannot accidentally contact live parts during normal operation. The judge affirmed the citation and held that the requirement applied to the…
Clifford B. Hannay & Son, Inc.
Spray-booth electrical violation reduced to de minimis
Hannay manufactured industrial hose reels and used flammable lacquer and solvents in spray booths. Electrical switches and receptacles that were not approved for a Class I, Division 2 hazardous area were located more than five feet but less than twenty feet from the booth openings, contrary to 29…
Joseph Weinstein Electric Corp.
Service ruling set aside and remanded
OSHA mailed citations, penalty notices, and a failure-to-abate notice by certified mail to Joseph Weinstein Electric's New York City jobsite rather than its corporate office. The judge vacated the documents because the employees who received them were not authorized to accept formal service for the…
Wood Products Co.
Judge affirmed without merits review
The Commission placed the Wood Products case under review on its own initiative. Neither party petitioned for review, objected to the judge's decision, or otherwise expressed dissatisfaction with it. In the absence of a compelling public interest, the Commission declined to pass on or change the…
Supermarkets General Corp.
With no party objecting, the Commission declines review and lets the judge's decision stand
This case reached the Commission only because a Commissioner ordered review on his own motion. Neither Supermarkets General Corp. nor the Secretary filed any objection to the administrative law judge's decision, whether by petitioning for review or by responding to the review order. Because no…
Weaver's Cabinet & Millwork Co.
Judge affirmed without merits review
The Commission placed the Weaver's Cabinet & Millwork case under review on its own initiative. Neither party filed a petition, objected to the judge's decision, responded to the review order, or otherwise expressed dissatisfaction. With no compelling public interest requiring merits review, the…
K.L. House Construction Company
With no party objecting, the Commission declines review and lets the judge's decision stand
This consolidated case reached the Commission only because a Commissioner ordered review on his own motion. Neither the employer nor the Secretary filed any objection to the administrative law judge's decision, either by petitioning for review or by responding to the review order. Because no party…
Shaw Construction, Inc.
Serious trench-shoring violation affirmed
This decision followed a Fifth Circuit remand requiring two Commission members to agree on the trench-shoring citation rather than leaving the judge's ruling in place through an evenly divided vote. Shaw's trench was about nine feet deep, with six to seven feet cut through limestone and the upper…
The Schundler Company
Discharged-extinguisher citation vacated
An OSHA inspector found a discharged, inoperable fire extinguisher standing on the floor of Schundler's furnace room rather than in its mount. Other operable extinguishers provided adequate coverage, and the judge vacated the citation on that basis. The Commission explained that 29 C.F.R. §…
Carmody Roofing
Judge affirmed without merits review
The Commission placed the Carmody Roofing case under review on its own initiative. Neither party petitioned for review, objected to the judge's decision, or otherwise stated that it was dissatisfied. The Commission declined to pass on, modify, or change the ruling because no compelling public…
United States Pipe and Foundry Company
Conveyor lockout violation affirmed
Employees repaired a coal screw conveyor while its ground-level power switch was neither tagged nor locked out. The conveyor was energized during the repair, and an employee was caught in the equipment and fatally injured. United States Pipe argued that OSHA's accident-prevention tag rule was the…
Matter of Patel
Labor certification rescission required a fraud finding
An immigration judge rescinded a woman's permanent resident status after finding that her labor certification rested on materially incorrect statements. The judge did not decide whether she had committed fraud. The Board held that a newer regulation required fraud or willful misrepresentation of a…
Matter of Insurance Company of North America
Student-status violation supported bond breach
The Acting Regional Commissioner reviewed an appeal from a bond breach involving an Ethiopian student. The bond required the student to maintain lawful student status and depart the United States by the end of her authorized stay. She did not obtain an extension beyond January 15, 1976, and did not…
Penn-Dixie Steel Corp. (formerly Continental Steel Corp.)
Citations remanded for a merits hearing
The Seventh Circuit remanded the Penn-Dixie Steel case to the Commission. Following the court's order, the Commission sent Citation No. 1 and item 47 of Citation No. 2 back for a hearing on their merits. The order does not identify the cited standards, describe the alleged hazards, state the…
Cagle Construction Co.
Trench citation vacatur affirmed
The judge vacated a trench citation after finding that the Secretary did not prove noncompliance with either 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(c), as cited, or § 1926.652(b), as alleged in the complaint. The Secretary sought review of a legal conclusion and several statements about government counsel's conduct…
Bratton Corporation
Stair violations conditionally affirmed
Bratton supplied and installed metal stairways and handrails at a six-story construction project. Some permanent rails did not fit and had been returned for reworking, while the general contractor had filled the stair treads but left the landings unfilled. Three Bratton employees used the stairs to…
Springfield Steel Erectors
Crane power-line citation affirmed
Springfield leased a crane and operator to a painting contractor whose employee spray-painted from the crane basket near a 13,800-volt transformer system. The spray hose contacted an energized line, allowing current to travel through the liquid paint to the nozzle, and the painter was fatally…
Western Electric, Inc.
Judge affirmed on court remand
The Second Circuit remanded the Western Electric case to the Commission. In accordance with the court's order, the Commission affirmed Administrative Law Judge Paul E. Dixon's August 14, 1975 decision. The Commission order does not describe the underlying citations, standards, hazards, detailed…
Constructora Maza, Inc.
Safety-belt violation reclassified as willful-serious
Constructora Maza, Inc. employees worked near an unguarded wall opening on the sixteenth floor without safety belts or other protective equipment. The Commission allowed OSHA to amend the alleged violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a) from repeated to willful because the standard, facts, and means of…
Atlantic Steel Company
Noise-control case remanded for economic feasibility
OSHA cited Atlantic Steel for failing to use feasible engineering or administrative controls to reduce excessive noise exposure for a rougher, assistant roller, and shearman in its fabrication mill. The Commission upheld the judge's findings that proposed booths, barriers, fan changes, a quiet…
Barker Brothers, Inc.
Loader safety violation affirmed
Barker Brothers, Inc. was cited under the general duty clause after an employee was fatally injured while a track loader was being moved onto a dump truck. The truck moved and its bed tipped because available brakes, wheel chocks, chains, and boomers were not used. The Commission held that the…
Mid-States Construction Co., Inc.
Trench and crane rulings affirmed in two-member impasse
Mid-States Construction Co., Inc. was cited over trench shoring, an unbarricaded crane swing radius, and unguarded moving machine parts. Both commissioners agreed that the crane required a physical barricade and affirmed that violation. They disagreed about the trench-shoring violation and whether…
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.