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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Leone Construction Company
Serious trench-support citation reinstated
Leone installed sewer pipe in a ditch about 50 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 7 feet 5 inches deep. Heavy rain entered the unsupported ditch, whose sandy-clay walls showed cracking and erosion. The judge vacated the citation after deciding that the opening was an excavation rather than a trench. The…
Matter of Sosa
A nonviable marriage invalidated a spouse visa
A Mexican applicant obtained permanent residence through marriage to a U.S. citizen, then sought to return after about a year in Mexico. The Service did not claim that the marriage was a sham when it began. The Board majority nevertheless found that the marriage was no longer viable when he…
Francisco Tower Service
Publication-only direction for review vacated
Commissioner Moran directed review so the complete judge's decision would be published after the Commission discontinued its official bound reporter. The Commission held that publication alone did not present an issue for adjudication under the OSH Act because it was unrelated to the parties'…
Environmental Utilities Corporation
Willful trench citation reduced to serious
Environmental Utilities installed sewer lines at a Pennsylvania worksite. Two laborers entered an unsupported trench in damp clay after the foreman left to obtain parts, and the trench wall collapsed after about five minutes, trapping both workers and killing one. The Commission agreed that the…
Mobil Oil Company
Refinery heater relighting citation vacated
Mobil operated a natural-gas process heater at its Paulsboro, New Jersey, oil refinery. During a relighting attempt after a shutdown, the heater exploded and seriously injured an operator. OSHA cited Mobil under the general duty clause, alleging that its established relighting procedure lacked…
Grand Union Company
Retail mesh-glove citations vacated
Grand Union operated retail stores in Peterborough and Allenstown, New Hampshire. OSHA cited each store under the general personal-protective-equipment standard because meatcutters did not use wire-mesh gloves. The judge found that mesh gloves would eliminate or substantially reduce knife injuries…
Matter of Irani
Claimed 1954 adoption did not establish a qualifying child relationship
A permanent resident sought a visa preference for her nephew as her adopted son, based on a claimed adoption in Bombay in 1954. The Board found no adoption decree or other proof that she complied with the Hindu law then in force. A Library of Congress memorandum explained that a woman could adopt…
Matter of Tanori
Temporary travel allowed consideration of a waiver in deportation proceedings
A permanent resident faced deportation after a conviction for possession of marijuana for sale. He had briefly traveled to Mexico after the conduct underlying the conviction. The Board found that he met the statutory requirements for a section 212(c) waiver: the trip was voluntary and temporary…
Matter of Martinez
Commuter received permission to reapply after old deportations
A Mexican commuter appealed an exclusion decision based on deportations in 1947 and 1950 and the lack of permission to reapply for admission. The Board agreed that exclusion proceedings were proper because the evidence showed he was detained at the border. It found that his omission of the…
Gate City Steel Corporation
Press-brake guarding case remanded for a merits hearing
Gate City Steel operated a metal-fabrication shop in Boise, Idaho. OSHA issued a serious citation alleging that two press brakes lacked point-of-operation guards and proposed a $600 penalty. Before taking evidence, the judge held that the general machine-guarding standard did not apply to press…
Amoco Oil Company
Aboveground forklift fuel-tank citation affirmed
Amoco maintained a fixed 250-gallon aboveground gasoline tank near a warehouse at its Whiting, Indiana, refinery. The tank primarily fueled company forklifts and on occasion was used by other vehicles. Amoco argued that the refinery was not a service station and that the powered-industrial-truck…
House Wood Products Company
Swing cutoff-saw guarding item affirmed
House Wood Products manufactured wooden pallets at a Mansfield, Pennsylvania, plant. OSHA cited three swing cutoff saws because their lower blade portions lacked guards that automatically adjusted to the stock being cut. The company argued that a compliant guard could trap and throw wood chips…
Isseks Brothers, Inc.
Safety belts required for uncaged fixed ladders
Isseks Brothers sent employees to make emergency repairs to a rooftop water tank about eight floors above a New York City street. The employees climbed uncaged fixed ladders, including a steep ladder rising between 26 and 30 feet above the roof, without safety belts or other fall protection. The…
Acme Metal, Inc.
Penalty-only contests leave citations final
Acme Metal operated two steel-fabricating plants in Portland, Oregon. OSHA cited machine-guarding and posting violations after inspecting both plants. The Commission held that Acme's notices of contest placed only the penalties at issue for the table saw in docket 1811 and the metal saw and posting…
Theodore D. Bross Line Construction Corp.
Tower dismantling hazard affirmed
Theodore D. Bross Line Construction was dismantling 100-foot steel electrical transmission towers. Two employees remained about 60 feet above the ground while a crane and winch pulled over the tower's upper section. The section struck the remaining tower, causing one employee to fall and die and…
Marquette Cement Manufacturing Co.
Late amendment lacked consent
Marquette Cement discarded worn kiln bricks through an opening 26 feet above an alleyway at its Catskill, New York, plant. An employee in the alleyway was struck by the falling debris and killed. The Secretary first cited the general duty clause, then amended the complaint to cite a construction…
H.L. Vokes Company
Posted settlement gave employees adequate notice
H.L. Vokes Company was cited for failing to abate a spray-area ventilation violation. The Secretary and the company settled the case by extending the abatement date, affirming the $30 failure-to-abate penalty, and withdrawing the company's contest. The Commission held that the dispute over the…
Coleman Co., Inc.
Abatement extension dispute was moot
Coleman Company obtained an extension of the deadline for correcting an unguarded-machinery hazard. An affected employee opposed the extension and argued that interim protective measures were available. By the time the case reached the Commission, both the extended December 1974 deadline and a…
The Ashton Company, Inc.
Steel-erection railing rule controlled temporary floors
The Ashton Company was the general contractor building a multistory county courthouse in Tucson, Arizona. During the steel-erection stage, employees installed plywood decking and poured concrete on partially completed second and third floors. OSHA cited Ashton under the general open-sided-floor…
Brady-Hamilton Stevedore Company
Unguarded radial saw violation affirmed
Brady-Hamilton Stevedore operated a radial-arm saw without a guard over the lower exposed blade at its Portland, Oregon, gear locker. The judge vacated the citation after finding that the woodworking machinery standard was invalidly adopted from an ANSI standard. Relying on its earlier Noblecraft…
Lige Dickson Co.
Wet trenches required sloping and safe exits
Lige Dickson Company excavated long dewatering trenches in wet, unstable fill at a Tacoma, Washington, worksite. Portions of two trenches were 9 to 10 feet deep, inadequately sloped, and unshored, while an employee worked along the trench bottoms. The company also provided no ladders or steps, and…
Thunderbird Coos Bay, Inc.
Saw guard and forklift-riding violations affirmed
Thunderbird Coos Bay used a radial-arm saw without a guard over the lower exposed blade. At the same worksite, two employees rode about 15 feet above the ground on loose lumber carried by a forklift. The Commission held that the saw-guarding standard was valid and that the exposed blade created a…
Diebold, Inc.
Press brakes required point-of-operation guarding
Diebold operated unguarded press brakes and mechanical punch presses at three Ohio plants. The Commission held that press brakes, although excluded from the specific mechanical-power-press rule, remained subject to the general machine-guarding requirements. It rejected Diebold's vagueness and…
Matter of Valerio
Late Dominican divorce pronouncement left prior marriage intact
A U.S. citizen sought immediate relative status for her spouse. His earlier Dominican divorce judgment dated from July 1970, but it was not pronounced by a civil registry official until May 1974. The couple had married in December 1973, before that pronouncement. The Board found the prior marriage…
Matter of Bogart
Attorney discipline requires a meaningful hearing
An attorney faced suspension from practice before the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Board after the California Supreme Court suspended him. The Board first suspended him based on the state order but stayed its decision for Attorney General review. The Attorney General reversed…
J.A. McCarthy, Inc.
Employee refusal did not excuse hardhat violations
J.A. McCarthy employed longshoremen at the Port of Philadelphia who repeatedly refused to wear required protective hats. The company supplied hats, posted signs, conducted an educational campaign, included reminders in pay envelopes, and held safety meetings, but did not discipline or discharge…
Matter of Aviles
Appeal ended the district director's jurisdiction
A U.S. citizen appealed the denial of an immediate relative petition for his spouse. After he appealed, the district director reopened the matter, interviewed the couple, and issued a second denial. The Board held that the appeal had ended the director's jurisdiction, making the second order…
Matter of Nevarez
The Service must translate crucial foreign language evidence
A U.S. citizen petitioned for immediate relative classification for her spouse. The district director revoked approval after relying on the spouse's sworn statement to a U.S. consul in Mexico, but the spouse later recanted it. The statement was in Spanish and the Service supplied no English…
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc.
Mesh gloves not required for retail meatcutters
OSHA cited A&P because a meatcutter in a retail store did not wear a wire-mesh glove on his noncutting hand while boning meat. The record showed that retail meatcutters rarely used mesh gloves and that the store's reported meat-department accidents did not include boning injuries. The judge held…
Grand Union Co.
PPE rule did not require wire-mesh gloves for butchers
OSHA cited Grand Union because butchers in one of its retail stores did not use wire-mesh gloves, protective aprons, or head protection. The judge dismissed the item for lack of proof that employees were exposed to the alleged hazard. On review, the Commission disagreed with that exposure finding…
Akron Brick & Block Co.
Work rules and tools were not machine guarding
Akron Brick & Block used an automatic cuber to stack finished concrete blocks. When the machine misplaced a block, operators were instructed to turn a safety switch, use a metal hook, and avoid entering the point of operation. Employees nevertheless entered the machine during its operating cycle…
Matter of Riccio
Suspension decision required an independent exercise of discretion
Two respondents sought suspension of deportation after remaining in the United States despite earlier voluntary departure orders. The immigration judge found them statutorily eligible but denied relief as a matter of discretion after relying on a House Judiciary Committee report. The Board modified…
Matter of Mujahid
Earlier marriage made Egyptian marriage invalid for visa preference
A lawful permanent resident sought spouse preference classification for a beneficiary he had signed a marriage contract with in Egypt. The petitioner argued that he intended to marry only after his prior divorce became final and that no wedding ceremony had occurred. The Board held that the…
Donald K. Nelson Construction, Inc.
Improper personal service invalidated citation
OSHA attempted to send a construction citation and proposed penalty by certified mail, but the mailing was not delivered. An agency official retrieved the envelope and personally delivered it to the home of the company's president, where his wife received it. The Commission held that personal…
Juhr & Sons
Saw-guard citation reinstated and penalty reduced
Juhr & Sons, a general contractor, was cited after employees used a radial arm saw without a guard covering the lower portion of the blade. The employer admitted the violation and contested only the proposed $550 penalty. The administrative law judge nevertheless considered whether the guarding…
Amory Cotton Oil Company
Screw-conveyor guarding amendment remanded
Amory Cotton Oil employees manually pushed cottonseed into an uncovered floor-level screw conveyor, and one employee was fatally injured. OSHA cited a power-transmission shaft standard, but at the hearing sought to add an open-sided-floor standard and the general machine-guarding standard after the…
ACE Sheeting & Repair Co.
Unguarded skylight citation affirmed
ACE Sheeting & Repair's owner and an employee were replacing rusted metal sheets on a pitched warehouse roof containing about 60 skylight openings. The openings were covered by translucent panels but had no compliant guardrails or covers, and the employee fell through a panel and died. The…
Colorado Pipe Lines, Inc., d/b/a CPL Constructors
Unprotected trench violation affirmed as serious
Colorado Pipe Lines was cited for a willful violation involving an inadequately protected trench and excavated material placed near its edge. The trench was 12 to 14 feet deep, and employees were exposed while its sides were not adequately shored or sloped. The Commission agreed that the evidence…
Sletten Construction Co.
Bridge guardrail citation affirmed
Sletten Construction was excavating bridge piers and used a work bridge above water without guardrails. The Commission upheld the judge's finding, based on circumstantial evidence, that employees were exposed to the unguarded bridge and affirmed the repeated violation with a $340 penalty. It also…
Boring & Tunneling Co. of America
Trench ladder and shoring violations affirmed
Boring & Tunneling employees worked in a 14-foot-deep sewer trench reached by a short, improperly pitched, and unsecured ladder. The trench sides were nearly vertical, and the shoring used deteriorated, split, and rotting timbers while nearby highway traffic created vibration. The administrative…
Cornish Dress Manufacturing Co.
Sewing-machine belt guarding required
Cornish Dress Manufacturing operated straight, single-needle sewing machines whose exposed power-transmission belts ran at 800 to 900 feet per minute. The administrative law judge vacated the citation because he viewed the belt-guarding standard as intended for larger industrial machinery and…
American Smelting & Refining Co.
Asbestos exams required at any exposure level
American Smelting & Refining operated a Montana plant producing lead bullion and zinc oxide, where some employees worked around asbestos and others were exposed to airborne lead and zinc oxide. The Commission held that the asbestos standard required annual medical examinations whenever an…
The Bearden Co.
Unsupported trench violation affirmed as serious
The Bearden Company, a plumbing contractor, excavated a sewer-line trench in unstable soil with vertical, unsupported walls. Its foreman lowered an employee into the 8-to-10-foot-deep trench to inspect the sewer main before shoring equipment arrived. The employee later reentered the deep area and…
Matter of James
Dominica law did not legitimate the beneficiary
A United States citizen petitioned for preference classification for his adult daughter, who was born out of wedlock in Dominica. The petitioner had never married the beneficiary's mother and argued that his acknowledgment of paternity legitimated the beneficiary. The Board found that Dominica's…
Buckeye Industries, Inc.
Garment-machine guarding violations affirmed
Buckeye Industries manufactured men's slacks using about 101 sewing machines, four electric knives, and 11 steam pressers without point-of-operation guards. Its records showed repeated finger, hand, and eye injuries involving the cited equipment. The Commission held that OSHA proved the violations…
Clark Equipment Co.
Press-brake guarding citation affirmed
Clark Equipment manufactured heavy construction equipment using five press brakes whose points of operation were unguarded. Operators placed metal within inches of the dies, and a descending die could amputate a hand or finger. The Commission held that the general machine-guarding standard applied…
Penn Central Transportation Co.
Rail-shop safety violations and $625 penalty affirmed
OSHA cited Penn Central's railway maintenance and repair shop for 15 nonserious conditions involving fall protection, fire and chemical safety, compressed air, machine and electrical guarding, and failure to post the OSHA notice. The Commission agreed that railroad status did not remove OSHA…
Vincent Rizzo, d/b/a Vincent Rizzo Construction Co. or Masoncraft, Inc.
Citations dismissed for naming the wrong employer
OSHA issued three serious construction citations totaling $1,500 against Vincent Rizzo and a company that had not performed the cited work. The notice of contest promptly stated that Masoncraft, Inc. was the correct employer, but the Secretary continued prosecuting Rizzo individually rather than…
Continental Kitchens, Inc.
Woodworking saw-guard violations affirmed
Continental Kitchens manufactured kitchen cabinets using seven radial, swing cut-off, and hand-fed crosscut table saws that lacked required blade guards. The employer admitted the saws did not meet the guarding requirements but argued that guards could create a greater hazard by throwing small…
Todd Shipyards Corp.
Shipyard fall-protection violation classified as repeated
Todd Shipyards admitted several safety violations at its San Pedro shipbuilding and repair yard. The Commission classified the failure to provide protective equipment for employees working more than five feet above a solid surface as repeated because two prior final citations involved substantially…
Victor O. Hegsted, d/b/a Challenger Supply
Serious saw-guarding citation affirmed
Challenger Supply operated three saws that did not comply with the woodworking-machine guarding standards. The Commission held that the standards were validly promulgated and that the violation was serious because contact could cause amputation of a hand or fingers. It found employer knowledge…
Madison Millwork Co.
Radial-saw violations reduced to nonserious
Madison Millwork operated two radial arm saws without guards covering the exposed sides of the lower blade and used compressed air for cleaning above 30 pounds per square inch. The Commission upheld the validity of the radial-saw guarding standard and affirmed the administrative law judge's…
Pantry Pride Food Fair Stores, Inc.
Mesh-glove citation for meat cutters vacated
Pantry Pride meat cutters trimmed and boned meat without wire mesh gloves. OSHA cited the retail food store under the general personal-protective-equipment standard and proposed a $50 penalty. The record showed only infrequent minor nicks, no customary use of mesh gloves in retail meat departments…
Matter of Mintah
District director lost jurisdiction after appeal was filed
A United States citizen's visa petition for her spouse was denied after she missed three scheduled interviews. While her appeal was pending before the Board, the district director purported to reopen the case and issued a second denial. The Board held that the district director had lost…
Matter of Francois
Withholding claim rejected after review of refugee convention issues
The respondent entered the United States from Haiti without inspection and sought withholding of deportation because he feared persecution if returned. The Board held that a State Department letter about country conditions could be admitted and weighed, although the immigration judge had excluded…
William W. Turnbull, d/b/a Turnbull Millwork Co.
Table-saw citation affirmed and penalty reduced
Turnbull Millwork, a four-employee kitchen-cabinet manufacturer, used two hand-fed table saws without the required guards. Its initial pro se notice contested only the $500 penalty, but later filings made clear that the employer had intended to contest the citation too. The Commission held that…
Rocky Mountain Millwork, Inc.
Serious saw-guarding citation affirmed
Rocky Mountain Millwork had four saws that did not comply with the woodworking-machine guarding standards. The Commission held that the standards were validly promulgated and that the violation was serious because contact could cause amputation of a hand or fingers. It found employer knowledge…
Peregrine Industries, Inc.
Serious radial-saw guarding citation affirmed
Peregrine Industries operated radial saw equipment that did not comply with the lower-blade guarding standard. The Commission held that the standard was validly promulgated and that the violation was serious because contact could cause severe physical harm, including finger amputation. It also…
International Terminal Operating Corporation of New England; John T. Clark and Son of Boston, Inc.; Terminal Services, Inc.; Bernard S. Costello, Inc.
Longshore hard-hat citations affirmed
Four Boston stevedoring companies were cited in nine cases after longshore employees handled cargo without required protective hats. The employers had supplied hats and repeatedly instructed workers to wear them, but they did not discipline noncompliant employees because they feared crews would…
River Terminal Railway Co.
Tower egress and electrical citations affirmed
River Terminal Railway was cited at its Cleveland facilities for lacking two remote means of egress from a bridge tower and for unguarded electrical equipment without warning signs. The railroad argued that Federal Railroad Administration authority displaced OSHA jurisdiction over the work. The…
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.