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 Cheng
Employment policy permits review of adjustment request
An immigration judge denied a Chinese man's request to adjust his status because he had worked without permission after January 1, 1977. The Board held that a later immigration service instruction could authorize that work retroactively for people with qualifying visa petitions filed before January…
Dravo Corporation
Cable and snowy-deck violations left in place
Dravo built and repaired riverboats and barges. Although cable splice strands were blunted, loose rusty wrapping wires still had jagged edges that had pinched workers' hands and caught their clothing, so the Commission affirmed that violation and a $60 penalty. Snow also remained on barge decks…
National Steel & Shipbuilding Company
Judge's decision affirmed without Commission review
The Commission had directed review after the Secretary petitioned to challenge the judge's decision. The Secretary later withdrew that petition, and the employer had not filed any exception of its own. With no party continuing to dispute the judge's disposition, the Commission declined substantive…
Charles H. Tompkins
Scaffold access deemed de minimis and crane item vacated
Employees building an upper work platform climbed scaffold-buck rungs spaced 18 to 20 inches apart instead of using a ladder with 12-inch rung spacing. The Commission held that the scaffold bucks were not equivalent safe access, but the added spacing did not appreciably reduce climbing safety. It…
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company; Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
OSHA jurisdiction restored
The railroads moved to dismiss OSHA citations on the ground that the Federal Railroad Administration had begun rulemaking about the same working conditions. The judge held that an advance notice of proposed rulemaking was enough to displace OSHA jurisdiction under section 4(b)(1) of the Act. The…
Advance Pipeline, Inc.
Trench violations and $1,080 penalties affirmed
Advance Pipeline installed a water main in soft, unstable soil without shoring, sloping, bracing, or other support. Testimony established that an employee worked in a trench section about seven feet deep, and the Commission noted that the standard applied at five feet or more. It also affirmed…
Matter of Exantus and Pierre
Asylum request requires district director decision first
Two Haitian respondents appealed a deportation order and denial of their asylum requests. The Board held that the immigration judge should not have admitted their arrest affidavits without testimony authenticating them after one respondent denied signing and the other said he did not understand…
Matter of Bullen
Visa preference petition denied for lack of legitimation proof
A lawful permanent resident from Grenada sought a visa preference for a woman he said was his daughter. She was born outside marriage, and the Board found no evidence that she had been legitimated under the law of New York or Grenada. The petitioner therefore had not proved that she qualified as…
PPG Industries, Inc.
Ledge fall-protection violation and $500 penalty affirmed
Three PPG employees climbed outside guardrails to take measurements while working on a narrow ledge about 10 to 15 feet above a concrete deck with lumber and sawhorses below. Safety belts were available but were not tied off. The judge vacated the citation because he discounted the compliance…
Fleming Foods of Nebraska, Inc.
Warehouse head-protection violation affirmed
Fleming Foods stored grocery products as high as 18 feet in a warehouse where 40 to 50 employees moved goods among the stacks without head protection. Eight falling-merchandise incidents had occurred before the hearing, including one injury, and hard hats could reduce harm from glancing blows or…
Dick Corporation
Rebar and fuel-safety violations affirmed
A rod-buster and foreman worked about 22 feet above a cement floor with protruding reinforcing steel, without safety belts or impalement protection. The Commission held that positioning and securing a rebar column against a wooden form was still placing and tying reinforcing steel under the cited…
Holman Erection Co., Inc.
Steelworker fall-protection penalty reduced to $100
Two Holman steel connectors traversed open beam gridwork about 35 feet above the ground without temporary floors, scaffolds, or safety nets beneath them. They wore safety belts, but the belts were not tied off while they moved along the beams. The Commission held that the specific steel-erection…
Kroger Company
Wire-mesh glove citation remained vacated
OSHA cited Kroger for not providing wire-mesh gloves to butchers working in its retail stores. The judge vacated the nonserious personal-protective-equipment citation, and the Secretary sought Commission review. The Commission held that its earlier Grand Union decision involving a similar…
Marquette Cement Manufacturing Company
General-duty violation and $500 penalty affirmed
A federal court vacated an earlier Commission decision and remanded with instructions concerning the Secretary's proposed general-duty-clause allegation. Following that mandate, the Commission granted the amendment and affirmed a general-duty violation based on the evidence described in the court's…
Joe Richter, Contractor, Inc.
Trench citations and $265 penalties affirmed
Three employees worked in an eight-foot-deep trench beside a heavily traveled road, with a vertical unshored wall, water in the trench, and spoil near an edge. They lacked head protection, and the earth ramps serving as exits were wet, unstable, and partly obstructed. The Commission found that pipe…
Edward B. Fitzpatrick, Jr., Associates, Inc. and Schiavone Construction Co., Inc., a Joint Venture
Barge-access citation remained vacated
Employees used wobbly, unsecured planks along a concrete footing beside the North River to move between a barge gangway and their work area. The judge vacated the barge-access citation because the gangway itself was safe and the planks were a separate work area rather than part of the access ramp…
Harbert Construction Corporation
Life-jacket use violation and $100 penalty affirmed
Two Harbert employees worked from a small skiff in 12 to 14 feet of water while retrieving pipeline floats. The skiff capsized and one employee drowned. Coast Guard-approved life jackets were available under the employees' seats, and the foreman had instructed them to wear the jackets, but he…
Midwest Steel Fabricators, Inc.
Abatement-extension petition denied
Midwest Steel Fabricators sought more time to abate two violations. The judge denied the petition after finding that the company remained out of compliance, had not proved a good-faith abatement effort, and had not shown that factors beyond its reasonable control prevented completion. The company…
Frank Irey, Jr., Inc.
Trench violation reduced from willful to serious
An employee was killed when the side of an unshored, unsloped trench collapsed during underground electrical-conduit work. The trench was about 7.5 feet deep in soft, unstable soil. The company knew trench-protection requirements and a state inspector had recently stopped work at a nearby trench…
Capaldi Brothers Corporation
Trench citation remained vacated after amendment split
OSHA cited Capaldi Brothers under the trench rule for soft or unstable soil. The judge found that OSHA had not proved that soil condition, vacated the citation, and denied a posthearing request to amend to the rule for hard or compact soil. Chairman Cleary would allow the amendment and found the…
Somogyi Construction Co., Inc.
Missing scaffold toeboards affirmed; guardrail impossibility does not excuse toeboards
Somogyi Construction's masons and laborers were building cinder-block walls when OSHA inspected and cited two scaffolds, one 13 feet high and one 24 feet high, for lacking guardrails and toeboards under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(a)(4). Administrative Law Judge Richard D. Benedetto vacated most of the…
L. E. Myers Company
Power-line gripping-device citation remained vacated
Linemen used gripping devices called preforms to remove about 3,800 pounds of tension from a static wire. Both devices failed, the wire snapped back, and one employee was struck and fell about 80 feet. The judge vacated the general-duty citation after finding that the method followed industry…
Matter of Dhillon
Adoption proof insufficient for visa preference
A lawful permanent resident sought a visa preference for a girl he said he and his wife had adopted in India. His wife signed the adoption deed in her own name, and the Board found he had not shown that Hindu law allowed her to adopt while married to a Hindu husband of sound mind or to act through…
Norkin Plumbing Co., Inc.
Commission remands a late-contest dismissal to weigh whether officials' absence abroad excused the delay
Norkin Plumbing received three OSHA citations with proposed penalties at its headquarters on August 13, 1976, but did not file a notice of contest within the 15 working days the law allows. Its attorney wrote to OSHA on September 23, 1976, asking to contest even though the deadline had passed…
United States Steel Corporation
Conveyor-guarding case remanded
OSHA cited unguarded nip points on a conveyor carrying screened coke dust at U.S. Steel's mill. The judge granted summary judgment to the company, reasoning that the general machine-guarding rule covered processing machines rather than conveyors used only to transport material. The Commission held…
Thermo Tech, Inc.
Fifty-foot scaffold violation and $400 penalty affirmed
Thermo Tech employees installed insulation from 50-foot-high scaffolds that lacked midrails, toeboards, and wire-mesh screens. The Commission unanimously held that the standard expressly required midrails and toeboards and that a fall to the concrete surface made the violation serious. Commissioner…
Georgia Quality Masonry, Inc.
Electrical violations conditionally affirmed
Georgia Quality Masonry employees were exposed to unguarded temporary lights, unsafe temporary-light cords and connections, and inadequately protected extension cords. The masonry subcontractor did not dispute the conditions but argued that it lacked electricians and could not perform electrical…
Crescent Plating Works, Inc.
Contest dismissal set aside and case remanded
The judge had dismissed Crescent Plating Works' notice of contest and affirmed the citations and proposed penalties. The Commission directed that order for review. After both parties jointly moved to vacate it and showed good cause, the Commission granted the motion, set aside the dismissal, and…
Cotter & Company
Safety-toed shoe requirement affirmed for warehouse dock workers despite no industry custom
Cotter & Company is a hardware wholesaler that supplied True Value stores from a warehouse and distribution center in Jonesboro, Georgia, where about 25 dock workers loaded and unloaded roughly 250,000 pounds of freight a day. OSHA cited it under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.132(a) for not requiring…
Emerick Construction, a corporation
Commission reviews only the penalties, drops the bulb-guard fine, and cuts the repeated-violation penalty
Emerick Construction was the general contractor building a hospital addition when two OSHA inspections produced four violations, later consolidated before Administrative Law Judge Thomas J. Donegan. Emerick did not dispute that the violations happened; it argued only that the penalties were too…
Blakeslee-Midwest Prestressed Concrete Co.
Commission affirms a serious fall-protection citation and rejects feasibility, greater-hazard, and evidence challenges
Blakeslee-Midwest was building a seven-story parking garage when an OSHA inspector saw a laborer, Walter Jackson, leaning out over the unguarded third floor, about 30 feet up, trimming the edge of a concrete slab with a saw and wearing no safety belt. The company was cited for a serious violation…
Meilman Food Industries
Meat-trimming platform guardrail violation affirmed
Meilman employees cleaned and trimmed cattle carcasses from three elevated work platforms whose carcass-facing sides had toeboards but no standard railings. The company argued that rails would interfere with meat-processing sanitation and increase cutting hazards. The Commission held that existing…
Williams Enterprises of Georgia, Inc.
Steelworker safety-belt citation remained vacated
Two steelworkers welded from beams 11 and 22 feet above temporary roof-level flooring without safety belts. The company complied with the specific steel-erection rule requiring temporary flooring within two stories or 30 feet. Commissioner Barnako viewed those specific rules as exclusive and would…
Seattle Stevedore Company
Hardhat violations affirmed as nonserious
Seattle Stevedore supplied hardhats, but longshore employees frequently refused to wear them and the company largely stopped using discipline after one 1973 incident. The Commission held that the company had not exhausted less drastic enforcement options, including bargaining with the union and…
Scioto Erectors, Inc.
Divided Commission leaves the ALJ's safety-net vacatur standing as the final order
Scioto Erectors was a steel erection subcontractor on a construction project in Marion, Ohio, where employees put up roof joists and cross-bracing about 60 feet up. The workers wore safety belts and tied off while welding and bolting, but not while moving between spots, stringing welding leads, or…
John W. McGowan
Commission declines sua sponte review, lets the judge's decision stand, and denies a motion for litigation costs
This oil field operator's worksite was inspected, resulting in four citations alleging serious violations with proposed penalties of $700 each. Administrative Law Judge J. Paul Brenton affirmed part of Citation 1 as nonserious, vacated Citations 2 and 3, and affirmed part of Citation 4 as…
Roadway Express, Inc.
Commission modifies the decision to hold that loading-dock supervisors also needed safety-toe shoes
Roadway Express, a trucking company, was cited for a repeated violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1910.132(a) for not requiring city drivers, supervisors, and staff to wear safety-toe footwear at a freight terminal. Administrative Law Judge James D. Burroughs affirmed a nonserious violation only as to city…
Danco Construction Company
Crane power-line violation and $600 penalty affirmed
Danco used a crane to unload pipe beneath electrical lines without maintaining the required 10-foot clearance. Two employees guiding pipe from the ground were injured when the boom came too close to the line, and one injury was fatal. The company argued that the event resulted from unforeseeable…
The Boeing Company, Wichita Division
Boeing hydraulic-machine hazard and $700 penalty affirmed
Boeing tested a self-designed hydraulic forming machine intended to operate at 100,000 pounds per square inch. At 80,000 psi, the machine failed and propelled a component weighing more than 1,000 pounds over 300 feet, killing two employees. Boeing argued that an unforeseeable defective part caused…
Louisiana-Pacific Corp.
Noise and conveyor violations affirmed
Louisiana-Pacific sold lumber products and operated a chipper and conveyor system at its Portland facility. OSHA cited excessive chipper noise and an unguarded passageway where lumber crossed from live rolls to another conveyor. The Commission found that the citation gave fair notice and that the…
Capitol/Atlanta Construction Company
Fall-protection penalty reduced
Capitol/Atlanta was constructing a building in Georgia when two employees worked on steel purlins 25 to 45 feet above a concrete floor without fall protection. The company did not dispute that the employees needed protection while installing channeling, but argued that the citation described…
Luhr Brothers Inc.
Federal-project noise citations reinstated
Luhr Brothers was an excavation subcontractor on an Army Corps of Engineers flood-control project in Missouri. OSHA cited construction noise-control, hearing-conservation, and guardrail violations. The judge dismissed the case on the ground that Corps safety requirements displaced OSHA coverage…
Willherco, Inc., Bermudez & Longo, Inc.
Subcontractor citations affirmed
Willherco and Bermudez & Longo were plumbing and electrical subcontractors at the same multi-employer construction site. Their employees had access to unguarded elevator shafts, stairways, and open-sided floors, although the subcontractors did not create the hazards and the general contractor was…
Phillip E. Runyan, d/b/a Chief Metal Products
Nonserious violations affirmed
An OSHRC judge affirmed a citation alleging nonserious safety and health violations by Chief Metal Products. The judge assessed no penalty. The employer asked the Commission to reconsider the same arguments it had presented to the judge. The Commission reviewed those arguments and found no…
T. Smith & Sons (Texas), Inc.
Repeated hard-hat penalty set at $200
T. Smith & Sons performed stevedoring work at the Port of Houston. About half of the employees unloading pipe and steel from one ship were not wearing hard hats, and the company's supervisor was also unprotected. The company did not dispute the repeated-serious violation, but challenged OSHA's…
Able Contractors, Inc.
Trench and seat-belt issues remanded
Able Contractors was replacing a sewer line in a 12-foot-deep, unshored trench in Billings, Montana. The judge found a serious trench violation but rejected OSHA's willful characterization, and also affirmed a citation because earthmoving-equipment operators did not use the provided seat belts. The…
Matter of Yeung
Adjustment hearing must await refugee preference process
An immigration judge denied a Chinese respondent's application to adjust status before he received written notice of a decision on his related refugee preference petition. The Board said the district director decides that preference petition, and the record did not show that the respondent had been…
Matter of Bourne
Sibling petition remanded for proof of family relationship
A U.S. citizen petitioned for a visa preference for a man she described as her brother. Both were born outside marriage to the same father and different mothers, and both were reportedly raised by the father and his wife. The Board held that legitimation by their father was unnecessary if they…
McElwee-Courbis Construction Company, Inc.
Commission affirms an excavation-wall citation after a cave-in, rejecting the employer's slope and employee-misconduct defenses
McElwee-Courbis Construction was building a pumping station and surge tank, which required a large excavation about 68 to 70 feet across. A lower section of the excavation's 18 1/2-foot north wall collapsed, and an employee working between a 4-foot plywood barrier and the wall was pinned by the…
Arrow Louver and Damper Corp.
Commission vacates a default dismissal and remands, treating the employer's review request as an answer to the complaint
Arrow Louver and Damper Corp. contested OSHA penalties but did not file an answer to the complaint and did not respond to an order to show cause. Administrative Law Judge Chaplin dismissed the company's notice of contest and imposed the penalties OSHA had originally proposed. A week later, the…
VECCO Concrete Construction of D.C., Inc.
Tower-crane platform citation affirmed
VECCO used a tower crane whose operator's cab was about 98 feet above the ground. The four-foot-square access platform beside the cab had an unguarded side facing the crane mast, with a gap of about one to two feet. The judge vacated the citation because OSHA had not separately proved that the…
Gil Haugan, d/b/a Haugan Construction Company
Contested citations dismissed
Haugan Construction's nonlawyer president filed a notice stating that the company contested OSHA's proposed penalties. The company's later answer clarified that it had intended to contest both the citations and penalties. Applying Commission precedent, the judge treated the contest as covering the…
R. Colwill Excavating Company
Trench violation affirmed, penalty reduced
R. Colwill Excavating was removing a buried gasoline tank from a nine-foot-deep trench in unstable soil. The trench was not shored, sloped, or otherwise supported. The judge found that two workers entered without authorization, but affirmed the citation because the company's foreman and…
Texaco, Inc.
Serious excavation violation affirmed
Texaco excavated an eight-to-nine-foot-deep hole to repair a leaking water pipe at its Tulsa refinery. Water pumping caused the nearly vertical walls to slough and created large overhangs. Texaco built a two-stage trench box, but employees entered the excavation while only the lower stage was…
Combustion Engineering, Inc.
Commission affirms scaffold, ladder-access, and fall-protection violations at a power plant repair job
Combustion Engineering was doing metal repair work at the Navajo Generating Station in Page, Arizona, when an April 1976 OSHA inspection produced citations. The company contested three nonserious items and one serious item. Administrative Law Judge James A. Cronin Jr. sustained all of them…
Ray Evers Welding Co., Inc.
Steelworker fall citation affirmed
Two Ray Evers Welding employees worked on steel girders 18 to 24 feet above the ground without personal fall protection. The company challenged the personal protective equipment standard as vague and argued that steel-erection standards governed instead. The Commission rejected those arguments…
Martin Painting and Coating Co.
Power-line citation affirmed
Martin Painting contracted to paint a water tower near high-voltage power lines. An employee working from a boatswain chair contacted the lines and was electrocuted. Management knew the lines had to be deenergized before work near them, but did not tell the painters to wait until the planned…
Bristol Steel & Iron Works, Inc.
Steel-erection fall citation affirmed
Two Bristol employees stood on a 12-to-18-inch-wide wall about 16 feet above concrete stairs while rigging a float scaffold. They wore safety belts and lanyards but did not use them, and Bristol knew of the condition. The commissioners disagreed over whether the general personal protective…
Jake Heaton Erecting Company, Inc.
Commission affirms a fall-protection citation because the foreman worked unbelted twenty feet up
Jake Heaton Erecting Company was cited under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a), the standard that requires employers to make workers wear appropriate personal protective equipment when exposed to hazards. A foreman knelt on a small platform about twenty feet above the ground, within a foot of the edge…
Matter of Sanchez
Earlier conviction cannot support renewed deportation
The Service appealed an immigration judge's order ending deportation proceedings against a Mexican lawful permanent resident. He had been convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 1546, deported for entering without an immigrant visa, and later readmitted as a permanent resident. He also received retroactive…
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.