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.
No decisions match these filters
Try fewer or different words, check the spelling, or clear the filters to browse everything.
Matter of Lok
Remand to assess lawful domicile for waiver eligibility
The Board had previously denied a man's request for a waiver of inadmissibility because he had not been a permanent resident for seven years. The Second Circuit rejected the Board's view that lawful domicile could begin only after permanent resident admission and sent the case back. The Board…
Matter of Garcia-Rodriguez
Adoption did not satisfy controlling Mexican law
A United States citizen sought immediate relative status for a girl she and her husband had adopted in Tamaulipas, Mexico. The district director denied the petition because the couple had living natural children, which appeared to bar the adoption under the state's Civil Code. The Board rejected…
Willamette Iron & Steel Co.
Repeated housekeeping violation affirmed with lower penalty
Willamette Iron & Steel Co. admitted that walkways and work areas on a ship were cluttered with hoses, electrical leads, cords, and debris in violation of the shipyard housekeeping standard. The company had received a final citation under the same standard at the same dry dock nearly three years…
C. Kaufman, Inc.
Fall-protection citation affirmed for untied welder
C. Kaufman, Inc. assigned a welder to perform a short tack weld on an unguarded scaffold about 19 to 23 feet high without a tied-off safety belt. The Commission reversed the judge's vacation of the citation because the cited standards required fall protection regardless of the experienced…
Brown & Root, Inc.
Stair-rail penalty reduced to $150
Brown & Root, Inc. conceded that flights of metal stairs between several floors of a generating-plant project lacked required handrails. An earlier uncontested citation involved the same standard at a different company division and worksite, and the judge classified the new violation as repeated…
Matter of Michelin Tire Corporation
Teaching employees' children was not specialized knowledge
The Regional Commissioner reviewed a petition by an international tire manufacturer seeking to bring a French education specialist to the United States as an intracompany transferee. The beneficiary had about nine months of employment when the petition was filed, and the proposed job was to teach…
Matter of Reyes
Visa petition denied because child was not legitimated
A father petitioned for immediate relative status for his 19-year-old son, whose parents had lived together in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, without marrying. The Board relied on a Library of Congress determination that common-law marriages were invalid there and that a child of such a relationship…
Matter of Lam
Unauthorized work did not bar adjustment in this case
A Chinese specialty cook sought adjustment of status after an employer obtained a labor certification and a sixth preference petition for him. The immigration judge denied adjustment because the cook had gained the required job experience through unauthorized work in the United States. The Board…
Sierra Construction Corp.
Five high-rise construction violations affirmed
Sierra Construction Corp., the general contractor for a seventeen-story hotel addition, was cited for five fall-protection, material-storage, floor-opening, and crane-signal violations. Fifteen employees worked near open floor edges and gaps about 130 feet above ground without fall protection, and…
Hoffman Construction Co.
Separate scaffold violations affirmed
Hoffman Construction Co. used two separate scaffolds that lacked the guardrails and toeboards required by 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(a)(4). One employee welded from an unguarded plank 30 feet above ground, while another worked on a noncompliant scaffold 16 to 18 feet high. The Commission reversed the…
Smith Masonry Contractors, Inc.
Repeated scaffold guardrail violation affirmed
Smith Masonry Contractors, Inc. was cited after a hod carrier removed blocks from the unguarded 13-foot level of a partially dismantled scaffold. Although the compliance officer did not see the employee on the upper level, photographs taken ten minutes apart established exposure through…
Donald Harris, Incorporated
Damaged scaffold-plank violation affirmed
Donald Harris, Incorporated admitted that several split and damaged planks on a tubular-frame scaffold had not been immediately replaced. The company had two earlier final citations under the same standard at other Pennsylvania worksites, and OSHA alleged that the new violation was repeated. The…
Gotham Electric Company
Subcontractor safety violations conditionally affirmed
Gotham Electric Company employees were exposed to construction debris, defective job-made ladders, unguarded floor openings, and unguarded open-sided floors at a multi-employer worksite. The electrical subcontractor did not create or control the conditions, but the Commission held that an exposing…
Matter of Carrillo-Gutierrez
Rescission clock began when adjustment was approved
An immigration judge terminated proceedings to rescind a Cuban man's permanent resident adjustment, finding them barred by a five-year limit measured from a retroactive residence date in 1969. The Board held that the limit began when the government approved his adjustment in 1974. It reasoned that…
Matter of Espiritu
Petition failed without proof of legitimation
A father living in Hawaii petitioned for immediate relative status for his son, who was born and lived in the Philippines. The father said he had lived with the child's mother in a common-law relationship, but they never married. The Board found no legitimation under Philippine law because that law…
Corhart Refractories Company
Silica-abatement deadline extension affirmed
Corhart Refractories Company filed four petitions seeking more time to abate an alleged silica-dust violation. The judge found that the company acted in good faith and that existing technology could not accomplish abatement, leaving the company to develop or invent suitable controls. Neither OSHA…
Limbach Co.
Subcontractor stairway-rail violation affirmed
Limbach Company employees used an open-sided stairway without the required railing for about one week at a multi-employer construction site. The mechanical subcontractor did not create or control the hazard, but it took no action to protect its employees or ask the general contractor to install…
Gulf Oil Company
Four violations affirmed and one vacated
An OSHRC judge affirmed four alleged violations against Gulf Oil Company, vacated a fifth, and reclassified one alleged serious violation as nonserious. The judge assessed total penalties of $910, including a reduced $100 penalty for the reclassified item. No party challenged the vacation or…
Julian Hirschbein, d/b/a State Home Improvement Co.
Roofer fall-protection citation affirmed
State Home Improvement Company employees installed shingles on a sloped, two-story roof without safety belts, lifelines, catch platforms, or other protection capable of preventing a fall. A wooden toeboard helped prevent slipping but could not stop a fall of more than 16 feet, and testimony…
Charles P. Blouin, Inc.
Stairway-rail violation conditionally affirmed
Charles P. Blouin, Inc. employees used narrow stairways at a multi-employer construction site that lacked railings on both open sides. The sheet-metal subcontractor did not create or control the condition, but the Commission held that employee exposure established a prima facie case. To avoid…
Schriber Sheet Metal & Roofers, Inc.
A divided Commission affirms a general-duty fall citation for unguarded flat-roof work
Schriber Sheet Metal & Roofers received three nearly identical citations for letting employees work near the edge of flat roofs about 25 feet up without guardrails or other fall protection. Each citation alleged a serious violation of both a specific construction standard, 29 C.F.R. 1926.500(d)(1)…
Quality Roofing Company
Guardrail citation vacated after amendment dispute
OSHA cited Quality Roofing Company for failing to provide a guardrail or equivalent protection for employees working on a flat roof. Before the hearing, the Secretary sought to replace that allegation with an alternative charge requiring safety nets when other fall-protection methods were…
Hogan Mechanical, Inc.
Citations vacated because foreman's exposure was not foreseeable
Hogan Mechanical installed mechanical equipment at construction sites and employed a working foreman who reported directly to the company president. OSHA cited the company for unsecured ladder conditions and missing guardrails after the foreman went alone to a church project, although he had told…
American Bechtel, Inc.
Safety-belt violation and $110 penalty affirmed
American Bechtel was the prime contractor building a soda ash processing plant. Two employees worked outside concrete forms without attached safety-belt lifelines, and the judge found that they were about 25 feet above the ground. The company argued that the work lasted only about five minutes, the…
Matter of Vivas
Deportation order upheld after visa exemption failed
A Mexican citizen entered the United States with an immigrant visa and a labor certification exemption based on marriage to a U.S. citizen. The Board found that the birth certificate used to establish his purported wife's citizenship belonged to a different woman, and he did not identify the person…
Security Window Division of Builders Supply Co., Inc.
Commission sets aside a judge's order and remands so a settlement can be considered
An administrative law judge had thrown out the Secretary of Labor's notification that Security Window Division of Builders Supply Co., Inc. failed to correct an earlier violation, doing so because the Secretary did not file a required complaint. On the same day that order became final, the parties…
Unit Builders, Incorporated
Safety-net violation and $100 penalty affirmed
Unit Builders was a steel erection subcontractor constructing a one-story warehouse. OSHA originally cited a steel-erection safety-net standard, then amended the charge at the hearing to the general construction safety-net standard while keeping the same factual allegation. Employees were working…
Shelvie Summerlin, d/b/a A & S Millworks and Rentals
Unguarded table-saw violation affirmed
A & S Millworks and Rentals operated two 10-inch hand-fed crosscut table saws without blade guards. The company argued that standard guards were impractical and could create hazards during specialized cuts such as dadoing and moulding. The Commission held that impracticability alone was not a…
Hood Sailmakers, Inc.
Missing needle guards found de minimis
Hood Sailmakers operated sewing machines without needle guards, and the judge vacated OSHA's machine-guarding citation. The Commission reversed because guards were available, the company's mechanic said a safe guard could be designed, and prior guards had been removed mainly because operators…
Price-Potashnick-Codell-Oman, a Joint Venture
Pipeline-equipment noise case remanded
Price-Potashnick-Codell-Oman used earth-moving vehicles while constructing part of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline. OSHA alleged that twelve vehicles generated excessive noise without feasible engineering controls, but the judge vacated the citation because operators wore hearing protection and the…
Constructora Maza, Inc.
Construction violations and $4,455 penalties affirmed
Constructora Maza was building a three-building complex in Puerto Rico. OSHA cited missing stair railings, scaffolds supported by concrete blocks, a weakened scaffold plank, unguarded floor edges, unsecured compressed-gas cylinders, and improperly built ladder cleats. The Commission relied on…
Continental Can Company, Inc.
Four plant-noise cases remanded
OSHA cited four Continental Can plants for allegedly failing to use feasible engineering or administrative controls for excessive noise. The company sought summary judgment, arguing that an earlier Continental Can decision barred OSHA from relitigating the economic feasibility of controls across…
Schreiber Corporation
Roof-guardrail citation remained vacated
OSHA cited Schreiber Corporation for failing to provide guardrails or equivalent protection for employees working on a flat roof. Before the hearing, the Secretary sought to add alternative allegations under the personal-protective-equipment rule and the general duty clause. The judge denied the…
Matter of Banaria
Board lacked jurisdiction over Service departure decisions
A family from the Philippines asked to reopen deportation proceedings after the immigration service denied reinstatement of their temporary worker status and extended voluntary departure. The Board held that it lacked jurisdiction to review those Service decisions and dismissed the appeal. It noted…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corp., S & A Concrete Co., Inc., a Joint Venture
Perimeter-guarding violation affirmed
The joint venture was a concrete subcontractor on a multistory project in New York City. Five employees installed long reinforcing bars within 10 feet of an unguarded third-floor edge about 30 feet above the ground. The company argued that its mobile barriers had to be removed to handle the 33-foot…
Cotner & Cotner, Incorporated
Open-floor violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Cotner & Cotner was a cement-finishing subcontractor whose employees worked at the edge of an unguarded floor 12 feet above the ground. The company argued that it did not create or control the condition and lacked authority to install guardrails. The Commission held that a subcontractor on a…
Tri-State Roofing and Sheet Metal Company
Flat-roof citation remained vacated
OSHA cited Tri-State Roofing for failing to install guardrails at the edge of a flat roof, then sought to add an alternative allegation that employees lacked safety belts. The judge vacated the original charge because the cited guardrail standard did not apply to flat roofs and denied the amendment…
Royster Company
Unguarded forklift platform violation affirmed as nonwillful
Royster employees worked from a makeshift platform of wooden pallets stacked on raised forklift forks, about 18 feet above the ground and without guardrails or toeboards. The judge found a scaffold-platform violation but rejected OSHA's willful classification and assessed an $800 penalty…
Alamo Store Fixtures Corporation
Saw penalty reduced and wooden guards deemed de minimis
Alamo Store Fixtures manufactured wooden store fixtures with a radial saw whose lower blade was unguarded and three machines protected by plywood rather than the metal guards specified by the standard. The Commission rejected Alamo's argument that wood being cut made the radial-saw guard…
Prowler Travel Trailers of New York, Inc.
Portable-platform guardrail citation vacated
Prowler employees finished travel trailers while standing on portable eight-foot spanners placed between two permanent catwalks. The spanners were 53 inches above the floor and lacked guardrails, so OSHA cited the general rule for open-sided platforms four feet or more above the floor. Commissioner…
Coastal Pile Driving, Inc.
Fall-protection amendment and violation affirmed
Coastal Pile Driving employees worked on steel beams about 25 feet above an excavated area without railings, safety belts, or lanyards. OSHA originally cited a runway-guarding standard and added the personal-protective-equipment rule as an alternative in the complaint. The judge found that the…
Simmons, Inc.
Compressed-air and elevated-work violations affirmed
Simmons employees regularly removed reduction nozzles and used compressed air above 30 p.s.i. to clean cotton from machinery. The Commission rejected the company's arguments that this was unknown misconduct or production work outside the cleaning rule, and it treated the condition as a separate…
C & C Plumbing Co.; M & M Contractors, Inc.
Nominal penalties affirmed after reinstatement
C & C Plumbing and M & M Contractors initially defaulted by failing to answer OSHA's complaint, and the judge's default decision became a final Commission order. The Commission later reinstated the cases under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) so the employers could contest the proposed…
Turnbull Millwork Co.
Dado-saw protective-device violation affirmed
An OSHA inspector saw a Turnbull employee use a table saw for dadoing without a comb, featherboard, or jig. The company kept those devices in the shop, and the judge concluded that merely making them available satisfied the standard. The Commission reversed because the rule was intended to prevent…
Granger Contracting Co., Inc.
Repeated guardrail violation and $950 penalty affirmed
Granger Contracting was the general contractor on a Massachusetts construction project where three floor perimeters had only a top rail or single wire rope instead of complete guardrails. The company did not dispute the violation but challenged its repeated classification and $950 penalty. The…
White Plains Iron Works, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation and $1,400 penalty vacated
The judge affirmed a repeated-serious citation alleging that White Plains Iron Works failed to install perimeter guarding on a flat roof. After that ruling, the Commission held in another case that the cited open-sided-floor standard did not apply to flat roofs. Because that precedent controlled…
Midway Industrial Contractors, Inc.
Dismissal for a late complaint set aside and remanded where no prejudice was shown
This is a short Commission order. Midway Industrial Contractors moved to dismiss the Secretary's complaint on the ground that it was filed late, and Administrative Law Judge Harris granted the motion, which was then unopposed, finding that the complaint had not been filed within the 20-day period…
Womack Construction Co., Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissal affirmed; delivery to the corporate office is valid service
Womack Construction was cited for a serious-willful violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.651(c) with a proposed $5,000 penalty. OSHA sent the citation by certified mail to the company's corporate headquarters, where a bookkeeper received it on August 22, 1975. An employer has 15 working days to contest a…
Gelco Builders, Inc.
Rebar-impalement violation and $75 penalty affirmed
Gelco employees used a 40-foot ladder positioned over protruding reinforcing steel to reach the second floor of a construction project. The judge vacated the impalement citation because the employees were installing perimeter guards rather than performing concrete work and because he did not…
Packerland Packing Co. of Texas, Inc.
Welding-fire violations and $600 penalty affirmed
Packerland employees used an oxy-acetylene torch to cut a cooler wall containing combustible polyurethane insulation. A flash fire occurred, and a welder was later found deceased after the parties stipulated that he ran into a structural support; the record did not establish the exact cause of…
Truland Corporation
Guardrail violation conditionally affirmed with $100 penalty
Truland was an electrical subcontractor whose employees worked within three feet of a second-floor edge protected only by a sagging wire rope. The judge found a serious guardrail violation, allowed OSHA to amend the original nonserious classification before the hearing, and assessed $100 instead of…
L. H. Land Painting Company, Inc.
Hollow-tread stair violation conditionally affirmed
A working foreman for L. H. Land Painting used an interior stairway whose hollow metal pan treads had not been filled with concrete or another solid material. The company argued that another contractor controlled the stairway, that it lacked knowledge, and that an exception for stairs under…
World Color Press, Inc., d/b/a Crossroads Press
Divided Commission affirms dismissal of a noise citation over a trade-secret discovery dispute
World Color Press prints magazines at a plant in Effingham, Illinois. After an inspection, OSHA issued a nonserious citation under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.95(b)(1) and (b)(3) for excessive noise and an inadequate hearing conservation program, and the Secretary later pursued only the engineering-controls…
KLI, Inc.
Machine-noise case remanded for economic-feasibility evidence
KLI manufactured screw-machine products and was cited for failing to use feasible controls to reduce noise from thirteen Davenport machines. A silencer substantially reduced noise on one machine, but KLI said it also caused productivity losses and safety problems. The judge treated economic…
Jensen Construction Co.
Runway and crane-barricade violations affirmed
Jensen employees crossed an unguarded plank suspended over bridge formwork, and employees also had access to the unbarricaded swing radius of an operating crane. The Commission treated the plank as a runway because employees used it as a passageway, even though it was not designed for that purpose…
Marinas of the Future, Inc.
Housekeeping item vacated and grinder violation affirmed
Marinas of the Future operated a small boatyard and used a converted barge as a workshop. After a severe storm, an employee performing extensive repairs had wires, tools, and materials spread across the floor, but the Commission found no evidence that the work area contained more material than…
Williams Construction Company
Excavation penalty reduced to $750
Williams Construction installed underground water and sewer lines in a roughly 30-foot-wide, 14-foot-deep excavation. The upper soil was soft and unstable, wet conditions reduced stability, and a nearby backhoe added vibration and load pressure. Two employees worked below a vertical north wall that…
Sletten Construction Co.
Bridge-platform fall-protection violations affirmed
Sletten employees worked on a bridge cofferdam platform about 12 feet above the Yellowstone River with an unguarded edge and an uncovered opening. Another employee worked 18 feet above the ground without using a provided safety belt. The Commission rejected impossibility because guardrails could…
Life Science Products Company; Virgil A. Hundtofte and W. P. Moore
Toxic-exposure citations and personal liability affirmed
Life Science Products manufactured the pesticide Kepone from HCP and exposed employees to toxic substances without adequate engineering controls or personal protective equipment. Employees were also allowed to eat, drink, and store food in contaminated work areas. The four citations included two…
Donovan Electric Company
Elevator-opening violation conditionally affirmed
Donovan Electric employees passed within three to five feet of elevator openings whose railings lacked required midrails, with a maximum fall distance of 17 feet. The general contractor controlled the guardrails, while Donovan warned employees at safety meetings to stay away from openings…
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.