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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Shaw Construction Company
Two serious trench citations and $350 in penalties affirmed
Shaw Construction excavated a trench about five feet wide, 20 feet long, and nine feet deep for utility cables. Excavated material was piled within two feet of the edge, increasing the load on the trench wall and creating a risk that debris could fall onto employees. The trench sides were…
Matter of Patterson
Student employment request denied for lack of financial need
An Australian student at Palmer College of Chiropractic sought permission to work at a hospital on weekends. He said tuition would rise and the hospital could not find a local worker, but his application showed savings that the Acting District Director found sufficient for the next two academic…
Matter of Delagadillo
Mexican fraud conviction did not bar admission
An immigration judge admitted a Mexican applicant after waiving a documentation problem and finding that his Mexican fraud conviction was not for a crime involving moral turpitude. The immigration service challenged that finding. The Board held that the Mexican statute covered conduct both with and…
Acchione & Canuso, Inc.
Citations dismissed after investigation found no employee exposure
OSHA issued one serious and one nonserious citation to Acchione & Canuso. After further investigation, the Secretary determined that the company's employees had not been exposed to the alleged hazard. The Secretary moved to dismiss both citations. The judge granted the motion. On review, the…
Trojan Steel Company
Oxygen-storage and punch-press items vacated by divided Commission
Trojan Steel contested two nonserious citation items, each carrying a proposed $50 penalty. One item alleged that a bulk oxygen tank was too close to a fire-resistant building wall under a 25-foot separation rule. The judge held that rule ineffective because its private consensus source had been…
Matter of Aero-Mexico Flight #142
Carrier fine upheld for missing passenger cards
Aero-Mexico appealed a $210 fine for failing to provide individual arrival and departure cards for 21 passengers on a flight from Mexico to Los Angeles. The carrier argued that flights from a neighboring country were exempt from the manifest requirement and that the regulation improperly required…
Continental Steel Corporation
Noise penalties modified, four violations affirmed
Continental Steel received four citations involving excessive noise, nonmandatory hearing protection, failure to lock out power during lubrication, and inadequate ventilation around an acid tank. The company stipulated that noise exceeded permitted levels and that some employees did not use hearing…
Matter of Vergara
Subpoena denial and deportation order upheld
A woman facing deportation raised a possible claim to United States citizenship through her father. After an adjournment of about three and a half months, she had not produced documents about her own birth or her parents' marriage and did not know where her father was. The immigration judge refused…
Merit Construction Company
Serious skylight-opening violation and $500 penalty affirmed
Merit Construction was replacing skylight panels when three employees traversed rows of unprotected skylights. Although the workers had been warned not to step on the panels, one worker stepped through an old skylight, fell between 16 and 28 feet, struck a rack, and then hit the concrete floor…
Murray Company, Inc.
Exit citation affirmed and penalties modified
Murray Company operated a hardware store in a basement and four-story building with one open wooden stairway connecting the floors. The judge found that the stairway did not provide sufficient emergency egress, affirmed the exit citation, reduced its penalty from $65 to $60, and extended the…
Midwest By Products, Inc.
First-aid and LP-gas items reinstated, ladder item vacated
OSHA cited hazards at Midwest By Products' rendering plant, including unguarded screw conveyors, defective ladders, inadequate first-aid preparation, an unsafe grinder, electrical defects, and an unprotected propane tank. The company admitted most of the nonserious violations and later acknowledged…
A. L. Amaral Company
Trench citations affirmed and serious penalty reduced
A. L. Amaral employees built a catchbasin in an excavation more than six feet deep with unstable fill soil, nearly vertical sides, no shoring, and no ladder. The judge treated the catchbasin excavation as part of a trench even though it was wider than it was deep. He affirmed a serious…
Terry Brothers
Radial-saw failure-to-abate penalty reduced to $250
Terry Brothers installed fences and wooden guards on two radial saws after OSHA cited inadequate lower-blade guarding. The added devices did not automatically adjust to the stock or cover the blade after a cut, so they did not satisfy the standard. The judge nevertheless found that the company had…
Matter of Phillis
Marriage evidence failed to support a spouse visa petition
A United States citizen petitioned for immediate relative status for his wife. The couple had never lived together, and the petitioner gave conflicting accounts of their living arrangements. He had not listed the beneficiary as his wife on documents or supported her, and their accounts differed…
Stoughton Body, Inc.
Serious fire hazards affirmed and warehouse item vacated
Stoughton Body faced one four-part serious citation and thirteen nonserious items involving compressed-gas and gasoline storage, welding fumes and screens, work platforms, spray painting, electrical equipment, housekeeping, exits, and firefighting equipment. The Commission held that the company…
Metro-Mechanical, Inc.
Scaffold and housekeeping citations affirmed
An OSHA compliance officer saw a worker on a mobile scaffold that lacked guardrails and positive-locking casters. Metro-Mechanical did not deny the scaffold conditions, but disputed whether the worker was its employee. The Commission held that the officer could rely on the job foreman's…
Water Tunnel Contractors
Misfired-hole violation and $800 penalty affirmed
Water Tunnel Contractors washed explosives from at least two misfired holes instead of placing new primers and refiring them. When drilling resumed, an explosion killed one employee and injured three others. The judge held that the standard generally required refiring and that the company bore the…
Olin Corporation
Forklift guard citation affirmed and crane-clearance item vacated
Olin operated unguarded forklifts around pallets, fiber cores, and scrap coil ends stacked above driver height. The Commission held that the overhead-guard standard protects against falling objects representative of the work and does not depend on whether objects are stacked above the forklift…
Matter of Abdelhadi
Petitioner may respond to consular letter about her marriage
A lawful permanent resident petitioned for a preference visa for her husband. The officer in charge denied the petition after a consular letter suggested that she may already have been married when she entered the United States as an unmarried daughter. The Board found that the letter's context was…
Matter of Chery and Hasan
Overstay charges were sufficiently specific
An immigration judge dismissed two deportation charges because the orders to show cause did not cite the regulation governing nonimmigrant stays. The Board held that each order specified the person's admission category, authorized period, alleged overstay, and statutory charge clearly enough to…
C.E.C. Electrical Company
Fall-protection and electrical citations affirmed
C.E.C. Electrical employees worked around untagged deenergized circuits, exposed live parts, unprotected cables, and unsecured switchboxes. Another employee lay on a 24-inch-wide walkway suspended about 70 feet above the floor and leaned out to weld without guardrails, a safety belt, or a lifeline…
Pittston Stevedoring Corporation; and International Terminal Operating Co., Inc.
Hard-hat citations affirmed without penalties
Inspectors found large numbers of longshore workers without required protective headwear aboard several ships operated by Pittston and International Terminal Operating. The companies had supplied hard hats, posted notices, held safety meetings, and urged voluntary compliance, but had not removed…
Matter of Stultz
Attorney General affirmed stepchild petition
A U.S. citizen petitioned for immediate relative status for her husband's daughter, who was born to another woman after the couple married. The district director denied the petition because the daughter was born out of wedlock. The Board approved the petition, then denied the immigration service's…
Railroad Salvage of Connecticut, Inc.
Failure-to-abate items affirmed and penalties reduced
Railroad Salvage did not contest an original citation covering blocked egress, poorly identified and mounted fire extinguishers, and hazardous material stacking, so those violations became final. A reinspection found that some cited locations remained uncorrected. The judge affirmed four…
Sheesley and Winters Construction Company
Excavation citation and $500 penalty vacated
Sheesley and Winters installed sewer pipe in a ground opening about 13 feet deep, 14 feet wide at the top, and 7 feet wide at the bottom. One wall was nearly vertical and the other was partly sloped, but inspectors observed no cracking, sloughing, or soil movement. The judge found that the company…
Bertke Electric Company, Inc.
Temporary-wiring citation and $35 penalty affirmed
Bertke Electric supported energized temporary branch-circuit wiring with pieces of insulated wire attached to I-beams and allowed other wiring to contact metal ductwork. The company argued that the National Electrical Code's permanent-wiring support rules did not apply to temporary wiring. The…
Kaywood Construction Company
Six final violations affirmed with $200 penalty
OSHA cited Kaywood Construction for posting and recordkeeping failures, a sagging perimeter rope, short ladder rails, and employees working without fall protection. The company's notice of contest challenged only the proposed penalties. The judge nevertheless reviewed the merits, vacated five…
Matter of Wang
Adjustment denials affirmed over labor certification concern
A mother and her daughter sought adjustment to permanent residence while the husband and father remained employed in Hong Kong. The mother said she had bank deposits and support from him and did not plan to work in the United States. The district director denied the applications in the exercise of…
Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company
Related companies treated as one employer
Workers at an airport construction site were exposed to debris with protruding nails, unguarded floor holes, and unguarded elevated platforms. They were nominally employed by Bob McCaslin Anchor Company, while OSHA cited Bob McCaslin Steel Erection Company. The judge treated the two corporations as…
Dravo Corporation
Settlement approved and crane item withdrawn
Dravo Corporation and the Secretary submitted a settlement agreement under which Dravo withdrew its notice of contest and the Secretary withdrew a nonserious crane item and its proposed $55 penalty for lack of supporting evidence. The judge approved the settlement and assessed $655 but did not…
Matter of Akinola
Customary divorce needed proof before spousal visa approval
A United States citizen petitioned to classify her Nigerian husband as her spouse for an immigrant visa. The district director revoked approval because the husband had previously married in Ghana and the petitioner had not proved that marriage ended. The Board said a Ghanaian customary divorce need…
United Engineers & Constructors, Inc.
Repeat rebar violation affirmed and two items vacated
At the Three Mile Island construction site, one employee stood untied on a crane girder about 225 feet above the floor while guiding another crane. Safety nets would have blocked the lift, and the Commission divided over whether a feasible safety-belt anchorage had been proved, leaving the…
Deering Milliken, Inc.; Alan B. Sibley Mill
Catwalk citation affirmed without penalty
A 20-foot catwalk about nine feet above a concrete floor had a rail on one side but no guardrail on the other. Pipes located up to two and one-half feet from the open edge left gaps through which an employee could fall, so they were not equivalent protection. The Commission affirmed the violation…
Matter of Allotey
Planned study under visitor entry weighed against adjustment
A Ghanaian citizen entered the United States as a visitor after his student visa application was denied, then left his tour group and began the studies he had arranged in Oregon. The Board held that his plan to study when he sought visitor entry was an adverse factor in deciding whether to grant…
GTE Automatic Electric, Inc.
Emergency-wash item affirmed and drill-press item vacated
GTE Automatic Electric was cited for an employee handling materials near acid baths without eye protection, emergency showers and eye washes located 50 to 75 feet from plating tanks, paint residue in spray booths, and unguarded drill presses. The judge affirmed the eye-protection and emergency-wash…
Jamison Bedding, Inc.
Cotton-dust citations vacated
Air samples from Jamison Bedding's bale-opening and willow operations measured total dust well above the one-milligram limit for raw cotton dust. The judge vacated the exposure and control citations because the samples also contained vegetation, burlap, and other process dust, and the laboratory…
Matter of Montemayor
Section 241(f) did not waive all deportation grounds
The Board considered a Filipino respondent's motion to reopen and terminate deportation proceedings. He had obtained an immigrant visa after misrepresenting that a marriage to a United States citizen was valid, although a prior marriage had not ended. The Board held that section 241(f) of the…
Colorado Fuel & Iron Steel Corp., a/k/a C.F. & I. Steel Corp.
Mixed steel-mill citations affirmed and vacated
OSHA issued 48 nonserious items at Colorado Fuel & Iron's Pueblo steel mill involving cranes, respirators, sanitation, welding, electrical equipment, access, housekeeping, and fall hazards. The judge affirmed many admitted or proved items, vacated others for insufficient proof or inapplicable…
C & H Erection Company, Inc.
Delayed citation-posting violation affirmed
C & H Erection received an OSHA citation on a Thursday but did not post it at the jobsite until the following Tuesday, after a compliance officer arrived for reinspection. The judge interpreted the requirement to post immediately as requiring diligent action with reasonable dispatch under the…
Tyler Refrigeration Division of Clark Equipment Company, Inc.
Employee notice required before dismissal
The Secretary moved to dismiss one citation item and its proposed $110 penalty after reinvestigation showed that Tyler Refrigeration had been in compliance. The judge granted the motion, but neither the motion nor the decision had been served on the union or posted for affected employees. The…
Matter of Joquin
Prior deportation required permission to reapply for admission
A Bermuda native and United Kingdom citizen returned to the United States as a visitor after a prior deportation, without obtaining permission to reapply for admission, and later overstayed. He argued that he had not been told he needed permission and that section 241(f) prevented deportation. The…
Matter of Rina
Illegal entry conviction foreclosed relitigation in deportation case
An immigration judge found a respondent deportable for entering the United States without inspection after a federal court had convicted him of that entry. The Board held that the criminal conviction prevented him from relitigating whether he entered illegally in the deportation case. It also found…
Matter of Varian
Citizenship claim rejected and case remanded
A man born in the Philippines claimed United States citizenship through his father and grandfather. The Board held that his father had not acquired citizenship at birth because he was born out of wedlock and was never legitimated under the law of his father's domicile while alive. His grandfather's…
Dallas Hotel Company
Serious scaffold violation and $600 penalty affirmed
Dallas Hotel employees worked on narrow scaffold platforms 20 to 60 feet above the ground. The rear of the platforms lacked guardrails and toeboards, and cross braces were too far away to prevent a fall. One employee also worked above another, creating a falling-object hazard. The Commission…
B.F. Goodrich Company
Noise settlement approved and abatement extension motion denied
The settlement vacated a chemical-exposure item and its $80 penalty for lack of evidence, while affirming an occupational-noise item with a $60 penalty and a staged abatement plan. B.F. Goodrich later asked for two years after the Commission's final order to complete the cure-men abatement work…
Matter of Tucker
State expungement did not remove deportability for marijuana conviction
A man convicted of marijuana possession in California sought reconsideration of a deportation ruling after a state court expunged the conviction and accepted a plea to a different offense. The Board held that California's probation and expungement statutes did not authorize the court to replace the…
Anchorage Plastering Company
Scaffold citations vacated for lack of commerce proof
OSHA cited alleged scaffold, hard-hat, and flammable-liquid violations while Anchorage Plastering employees applied stucco at an Alaska medical-center project. The judge did not reach the safety merits. He held that the Secretary failed to prove that the small plastering business affected…
Cox Brothers, Incorporated
Power-line and fall violations affirmed
A Cox Brothers foreman stood atop a 14-foot masonry wall without a safety belt or scaffold while inserting 13-foot reinforcing bars beneath an overhead power line. A bar contacted the line, and the foreman fell and died. The judge held that the company failed to inspect for the plainly visible…
Ames Crane & Rental Service, Inc.
Power-line clearance violation and $600 penalty affirmed
Ames Crane rented a crane with its own operator for work at an Iowa State University power plant. The crane operated between a doorway and energized transmission lines less than 10 feet away, and the load line became energized, killing another contractor's employee. Ames had given only general…
Continental Oil Company (Southern Facilities Terminal)
Tank-terminal fire citations vacated
A gasoline storage tank overflowed at Continental Oil's Chattanooga terminal, followed by a fire and explosion that killed the terminal manager and two employees at a neighboring facility. OSHA issued six citations involving drainage, diking, fire control, and the general duty clause. The…
Hammonds Construction, Inc.
Energized-line violation affirmed and penalty reduced
Hammonds Construction had a cold-line contract requiring power lines to be deenergized before work. Although the owner instructed the foreman to turn off all lines, the foreman sent two employees aloft above an energized 7,200-volt tap. A deenergized wire contacted the live line, killing one…
Buckley & Company, Inc.
Citations vacated after complaint deadline expired
A federal appeals court reversed the Commission's earlier dismissal of Buckley & Company's notice of contest. Because the Secretary had not filed a complaint after the case returned, the Commission gave the Secretary 20 days from receipt of its order to do so. The official release notes that no…
Matter of Espinoza
Adult marijuana sale conviction remained deportable after expungement
A Mexican lawful permanent resident pleaded guilty in Arizona to possessing marijuana for sale. The state court later allowed him to withdraw the plea and dismissed the charge under an expungement statute. The Board held that this expungement did not eliminate the conviction as a ground for…
Matter of Pataki
Service did not prove two separate schemes of misconduct
A Hungarian lawful permanent resident was convicted of manslaughter in his mother-in-law's death and of assaulting his wife. An immigration judge ordered his deportation under the rule covering two crimes involving moral turpitude that did not arise from one scheme of misconduct. The Board agreed…
Matter of Sinclitico
Canadian naturalization did not prove loss of United States citizenship
A man born in the United States became a Canadian citizen and later stayed in the United States beyond the period authorized for a visitor. An immigration judge found him deportable after deciding that his Canadian naturalization had ended his United States citizenship. The Board reviewed medical…
Feazell Construction Co.
Serious excavation citation and $700 penalty affirmed
Feazell Construction employees worked in an excavation about 14 feet deep with barely sloped, unsupported walls in backfill soil. Standing water, visible sloughing, and rain-washed spoil showed a moving-ground hazard. Excavated material was also stored within two feet of the edge, and the access…
Armor Elevator Company, Inc.
Elevator-shaft fall citation and $80 penalty affirmed
An Armor Elevator foreman worked on a four-by-eight-foot platform at the roof level of a 12-story elevator shaft. Openings on both sides were large enough for him to fall through, but he chose not to use an available safety belt because he believed it would restrict movement. The judge found that a…
Cedar Construction Co.
Repeated spoil-pile violation and $1,275 penalty affirmed
Cedar Construction piled a seven-foot spoil bank, including clods weighing up to 20 pounds, directly at the edge of a 12.8-foot-deep trench where employees worked. The company had a prior final citation for the same spoil-placement standard at another Nebraska worksite, and the Lincoln foreman knew…
American Airlines, Inc.
Repeat and failure-to-abate settlement approved
American Airlines and the Secretary settled a repeated foot-hazard citation and a related failure-to-abate notice after the company represented that it had corrected the conditions. The judge approved only the failure-to-abate portion because the repeated citation had not been forwarded into the…
General Bronze Architectural Products
Serious fall citation affirmed and penalty reduced
A General Bronze employee welded at the fifth-floor perimeter without a safety belt while a foreman was close enough to observe him. The Commission held that the pre-amendment personal-protective-equipment standard was enforceable here because the employee faced a fall of more than 25 feet and…
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.