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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Thorleif Larsen & Son, Inc.
$550 penalty restored for unanchored wall collapse
Thorleif Larsen & Son was the masonry subcontractor building a tall concrete-block wall at an Indianapolis construction site. The wall was left freestanding without being tied to the building's structural steel, and part of it collapsed, killing the company's foreman and seriously injuring three…
H. K. Ferguson Co.
Seven construction violations affirmed and two vacated
H. K. Ferguson was the contractor on a project to expand an Anheuser-Busch facility in Columbus, Ohio. The judge affirmed seven nonserious items involving debris, flammable-liquid storage, smoking warnings, compressed-gas cylinders, elevated runways, and safe access between elevations. He vacated a…
Scientific Coating Co., Inc.
Serious unguarded-scaffold violation affirmed
Scientific Coating employed painters at a power-plant construction project in Newark, New Jersey. An OSHA inspector observed two employees on the top platform of an approximately 18-foot scaffold without guardrails, midrails, or toeboards. The judge found that a fall could have caused serious…
Empire Art Products Co., Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced to $375
Empire Art Products assembled decorative products at a small New York workplace. A reinspection found that several electrical tools and machines remained ungrounded and that one of two cited exit-sign conditions remained uncorrected. OSHA did not prove that a compressed-air item remained unabated…
Tri-County Constructors, Inc.
Serious excavation violations affirmed with $1,200 penalties
Tri-County Constructors had employees working in deep ground openings at a Pennsylvania state-park project. One trench was about 18 feet deep, with its lower eight feet nearly vertical and without shoring, while another excavation had near-vertical walls, water, and unstable soil. The judge…
American Chimney Corp.
Ladder and scaffold violations affirmed at chimney job
American Chimney performed maintenance work on two chimneys approximately 240 feet high at a Camden, New Jersey facility. Its employees used sectional wooden ladders whose grooved ends lacked the required reinforcement, creating a risk that a rail could split and displace a rung. The company also…
Jack Shelton, d/b/a Jack Shelton Painting Contractor
Sandblasting item reduced to nonserious
Jack Shelton Painting Contractor used a rented sandblaster and a mobile scaffold at an Idaho construction project. The sandblasting nozzle lacked a manual operating valve, so the worker holding it had to signal another employee to shut off the equipment. The judge found a violation but reclassified…
Horne Plumbing & Heating Company
Serious trenching violations affirmed
Horne Plumbing & Heating was installing sewer pipe in a trench at a Georgia church project. A cave-in killed the job foreman and another employee, and the first inspection found undersized shoring in a roughly 17-foot-deep trench and excavated soil stored less than two feet from its edge. A later…
Marino Development Corp.
Trench violation affirmed and penalty reduced to $500
Marino Development was working in a trench in South Easton, Massachusetts. The trench was more than five feet deep in wet, unstable soil and lacked adequate shoring, support, or sloping. One side collapsed and killed the employee working inside, and the other side collapsed shortly afterward. The…
Matter of Halabi
Pending hearing did not extend student stay
A student from Lebanon was charged with violating the terms of his nonimmigrant status before his authorized stay expired. At a hearing after that expiration, the government added a charge that he had remained longer than permitted. The Board held that this later charge was timely, supported by…
Otis Elevator Co.
Elevator-shaft citation vacated for lack of employee exposure proof
Otis Elevator was installing an elevator at a Colorado Springs bank construction site where a first-floor shaft opening had a seven-foot drop. OSHA cited the company under the floor-opening standard, and the judge amended the charge to the wall-opening standard, found the makeshift scaffold barrier…
F.E. Myers & Brothers Company
Paint-spill violation reduced and conveyor citation vacated
F.E. Myers manufactured pumps and used flammable paints and thinners in its Ohio plant. The judge found a serious violation for inadequate precautions against spills and ignition sources, plus nonserious violations involving a combustible spray-booth floor and an overhead conveyor, and assessed…
Sletten Construction Company
Unused-crane and bulldozer items vacated
Sletten Construction was building a bridge in Idaho and used cranes with damaged wire rope, defective booms, and broken cab glass. The judge also affirmed a canopy citation for a bulldozer used to grade ground and move rocks, plus two recordkeeping items, and assessed $750 in total penalties. The…
Brown-Lane Company
Settlement vacates cylinder items and affirms scaffold penalties
Brown-Lane was constructing additional facilities for an affiliated open-pit clay mining operation in Louisiana. OSHA cited five conditions involving gas cylinders and scaffolding, with proposed penalties of $40 each for the two scaffold items. In a settlement, the Secretary agreed to vacate the…
American Bridge, Division of U.S. Steel Corporation
Tie-off citation vacated under greater-hazard defense
American Bridge employees connected steel beams while moving along roof trusses more than 60 feet above the ground. They wore safety belts but did not tie off while traversing or climbing the trusses, and OSHA cited the company under the personal protective equipment standard with a proposed $650…
St. Paul Feed & Supply, Inc.
Penalty-only contest leaves citations final
St. Paul Feed & Supply received one serious and 17 nonserious citation items at its Oregon agricultural-products facility. Its notice of contest identified only the proposed penalties. The Commission held that this limited notice left the citations and their abatement periods as final orders, so…
Hodgdon Shingle & Shake Company
Serious saw-guarding violation draws $1 penalty
Hodgdon operated a small Oregon shake and shingle mill with five large saws that did not meet OSHA's machine-guarding standard. The company admitted that the violation was serious, but the record showed that all guards known to the industry were already in use and no supplier offered conforming…
Matter of Tuitasi
Adoption in American Samoa did not confer U.S. nationality
The respondent was born in Western Samoa, grew up in American Samoa, and was adopted there by two U.S. nationals. After she overstayed a visit to the United States, she argued that her ties to American Samoa made her a noncitizen U.S. national. The Board held that the nationality statute did not…
Matter of Quijencio
Twelve years abroad ended claimed permanent residence
A Filipino citizen entered Guam in 1950 to work for the U.S. Air Force, then returned to the Philippines in 1956 after losing his job. He remained there for twelve years before reentering the United States as a visitor. In reopened deportation proceedings, he argued that a Guam regulation had given…
Hartwell Excavating Company
Trench citations modified and penalties reduced
Hartwell Excavating was installing a sewer line in an Idaho trench that exceeded five feet in depth and had unsloped sides in sand-and-gravel soil. OSHA also cited excavated material stored at the trench edge, missing exit ladders, a worker positioned beneath part of a backhoe bucket, an incomplete…
Otis Elevator Company
Settlement approved with $545 aggregate penalty
Otis Elevator and the Secretary entered into a settlement agreement, and the company moved to withdraw its notice of contest. The judge initially dismissed the proceeding after finding that the parties had satisfied the Commission's settlement rule. The Commission set aside that dismissal and…
Eastern States Electrical Contractors, Inc.
Withdrawn contest leaves $100 penalty affirmed
Eastern States Electrical Contractors asked to withdraw its notice of contest before the scheduled hearing. The company represented that it had abated the violation, would remain in compliance, and was tendering the proposed $100 penalty. The judge granted the withdrawal, cancelled the hearing, and…
Matter of Chin
Board withdrew prior approval of son's visa petition
A U.S. citizen petitioned for immigrant preference status for a son born in Hong Kong, relying in part on a Hong Kong birth registration naming him as the father. The Board had previously approved the petition under a Hong Kong rule deeming a Chinese male's child legitimate. On the Service's motion…
Matter of Swissair Flight #164
Carrier fine upheld for missing visa
Swissair flew a Swiss passenger through Boston after bad weather disrupted her planned route to Canada. She had no visa for entry to the United States, and the carrier said its staff faced pressure to reroute stranded passengers. The Board held that an airline must inspect a passenger's documents…
Republic Steel Corporation
Citation withdrawal conditioned on employee notice
Republic Steel contested part of a citation, and the Secretary later moved to withdraw that contested item and its proposed penalty. The judge granted the motion even though the record did not show that affected employees had received notice. The Commission held that a Secretary's withdrawal, like…
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, Wheeling Corrugating Company
Withdrawal conditioned on employee notice
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel contested a citation, and the Secretary later moved to withdraw the nonserious citation and its proposed penalty. The judge granted the motion without a record showing that affected employees had received notice. The Commission held that withdrawal before a hearing would…
Pacific Intermountain Express Company
Withdrawal requires posted employee notice
Pacific Intermountain Express contested one citation allegation, and the Secretary later moved to withdraw item 5 and its proposed penalty. The judge granted the motion even though the record did not show notice to affected employees. The Commission held that granting the withdrawal before a…
Otis Elevator Company
Shared-site fire and cylinder violations partly affirmed
Otis Elevator employees worked at a construction site where fire protection was deficient and compressed-gas cylinders lacked valve caps or were not secured upright. Otis argued that it did not own the cylinders or control the fire equipment. The judge held that an employer remains responsible when…
Bayside Pipe Coaters, Inc.
Subcontractor remains responsible for its trench crew
Bayside Pipe Coaters sent a foreman and two employees to waterproof pipe in a trench excavated by a general contractor. The company admitted that the trench, spoil-pile, and compressed-gas-cylinder conditions violated OSHA standards but argued that its contract made the general contractor solely…
George A. Hormel and Company
Hog-shaving platform guardrail citation affirmed
Hormel employees shaved hair from suspended hog carcasses while standing on a platform 58 inches above the floor. The carcass side of the platform lacked a guardrail, and OSHA issued a nonserious citation without proposing a penalty. The Commission found that gaps of 12 to 18 inches between…
C. N. Flagg & Company, Inc.
Willful trench penalty reduced to $1,000
C. N. Flagg employees installed gas pipe in a six-to-seven-foot trench with vertical walls in soft, unstable soil beside a road carrying traffic. The company had supplied adequate steel trench boxes and required their use, but the welding foreman knowingly chose not to use them after a gas-main…
Matter of Brandi
Visa waiting period did not create suspension eligibility
A married couple from Mexico sought suspension of deportation after overstaying their visitor admissions. Because Mexico is contiguous to the United States, they had to show they could not obtain special immigrant visas to qualify under a statutory proviso. The Board found no ground of visa…
Kermit L. Stepter d/b/a Stepter Brothers Lathing
Scaffold violations affirmed with $350 penalties
Stepter Brothers used a wooden scaffold at an Arizona apartment project where an employee worked 24 feet above the ground without required guardrails. The scaffold also had deficient footings, damaged members, unsecured planks, missing ledgers and bracing, and gaps between platform planks. The…
B & K Paving Company
Serious ungrounded-pump violation affirmed
B & K Paving used an electric water pump in a creek to control smoke from an asphalt batch plant. An employee entered the creek to inspect the pump intake, encountered electrical current in the water, collapsed, and later died. The pump was not grounded even though grounding leads had been…
Eastwind, Inc.
Serious trench penalties reduced to $600 total
Eastwind employees worked in a seven-foot trench with vertical walls in wet, unstable soil while excavated and backfill material was piled at the edges. Part of a trench wall collapsed and partially buried two employees, who survived. Eastwind admitted serious violations for failing to support the…
Grebb Electric Company
Housekeeping item affirmed and access hazards vacated
Grebb Electric was an electrical subcontractor at a large Denver apartment construction project. OSHA found scrap lumber and debris in areas where Grebb employees were working, along with temporary stairs lacking rails, protruding nails in stair treads, and open elevated platforms. The judge…
J. F. Probst & Co., Inc.
Roof guardrail citation reinstated with $25 penalty
J. F. Probst employees performed roofing work about 20 feet above the ground without a standard railing or equivalent fall protection. The judge vacated that item because he found the open-sided floor and platform rule inapplicable to roofs. The Commission reversed, holding that the standard…
RPM Erectors, Inc.
High-rise platform violation reclassified as serious
RPM Erectors used a movable platform outside a high-rise building to land curtain-wall materials. While RPM employees used it, the side guardrails lacked intermediate rails and toeboards, exposing employees to falls from heights between 18 and 33 stories. The platform was later damaged after RPM…
Sinaiko Brothers Company
Shear-guarding settlement approved with $50 penalty
OSHA cited Sinaiko Brothers for failing to provide a point-of-operation guard on a Milwaukee alligator shear. The company contested that item, then entered a settlement extending the abatement date to April 1, 1974 and agreeing to withdraw its contest and pay the proposed $50 penalty. The judge…
L. I. Dumont, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail violation affirmed
L. I. Dumont installed roofing materials on a one-story Alabama store building with an essentially flat roof about 20 feet above the ground. Three or four employees worked on the roof, including near its edges, and the company never installed guardrails or another barricade. The Commission affirmed…
Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
One noise-exposure item affirmed without penalty
OSHA cited four instances in which Sun Ship employees worked without hearing protection in high-noise shipyard operations. In the boiler shop, repeated spot readings exceeded 115 dBA and other evidence showed that an employee had operated near continuous chipping tools for more than the permitted…
T. Smith & Son, Inc.
Barge work-vest violation affirmed
Two T. Smith employees worked on a deck barge loading and unloading steel at a New Orleans wharf without Coast Guard-approved buoyant work vests. The company admitted noncompliance but argued that the employees were crew members or seamen subject exclusively to Coast Guard jurisdiction. The…
Matter of Ahmad
Gasoline station evidence fell short of investor exemption
A Pakistani citizen who ran a gasoline station sought to reopen deportation proceedings to apply for permanent residence. He claimed an investor exemption from the labor certification requirement. The Board held that he had not documented at least $10,000 in qualifying investment or his…
Matter of Kim
General opportunity claims did not establish extreme hardship
A Korean couple who had overstayed their student admissions sought suspension of deportation, citing hardship to themselves and their two U.S. citizen children. The Board agreed that the parents' employment concerns did not show extreme hardship. It also held that general claims of better economic…
Hardy Construction Company
Trench-side item affirmed and bank item vacated
Hardy Construction employees worked in a compact-soil trench that was more than six feet deep, about 34 inches wide, and insufficiently sloped above the five-foot level. The judge found a nonserious violation of the compact-soil trench standard but no substantial probability of death or serious…
Matter of Chung
Birth registration did not establish adoption
A lawful permanent resident petitioned for preference status for a Korean beneficiary as her adopted daughter. The beneficiary had been taken into the petitioner's husband's family as a child, and the petitioner later registered her as their natural child. The Board found no formal adoption…
Matter of Ajaelo
Immigration judge must assess exchange funding independently
A Nigerian couple sought adjustment of status after an immigration judge found them deportable. The husband had previously participated in an exchange visitor program, and the State Department had listed that program as government funded. The immigration judge treated the Department's finding as…
Matter of Moss
More evidence allowed on defector status
A Canadian citizen sought admission to retire in Washington after disclosing his past membership in the Communist Party of Great Britain. The immigration judge found him inadmissible and denied a defector waiver, finding insufficient evidence that he actively opposed communism. The applicant had…
Granite-Seabro Corporation
General construction citations vacated after power-line incident
Granite-Seabro employees remained aloft on an 85-foot power-line structure while supporting poles were moved into a vertical position. One employee died and another was injured. Because specific power-transmission standards had not yet been adopted, OSHA cited general construction provisions…
Rudolph Marossy
Power-line painting violation affirmed with $100 penalty
Rudolph Marossy operated a very small painting business and allowed an employee to spray-paint a silo within roughly three feet of uninsulated power lines carrying 7,000 volts. The lines were not deenergized or grounded, and no effective insulation or other protection was provided. The employee…
Weyerhaeuser Company
Storage item affirmed and noise citation vacated
OSHA cited noise exposure near a corrugator at Weyerhaeuser's Maine fiberboard plant, unstable stacks of corrugated cartons, and allegedly unguarded machine parts. The Commission reviewed the noise item and left the judge's vacation of it in place because the Secretary had not proved excess…
Sierra Pacific Industries, Hayfork Division
Eight sawmill items affirmed with $435 penalties
OSHA cited 11 conditions at Sierra Pacific's California sawmill, including platform railings, guarding around a lift and sawmill machinery, blocked exit access, sanitation, stairs, and crane equipment. The company admitted four items, and the judge affirmed four additional contested items involving…
Matter of Ma
Korean divorce did not establish unmarried status for visa preference
A lawful permanent resident petitioned to classify his son as an unmarried child for a visa preference. The son's Korean family register recorded a marriage and a later divorce agreement signed at the Korean consulate in Honolulu. The Board found the marriage valid under Korean law and considered…
Matter of Laigo
Cemetery plot sales violated treaty investor status
A Philippine citizen held treaty investor status while developing a cultural and trade center in San Francisco. She also sold cemetery plots and received substantial commissions for that work. She argued that her limited hours and community purpose meant the sales did not violate her status. The…
Matthews & Fritts, Inc.
$1,000 failure-to-abate penalty vacated
Matthews & Fritts received a trench citation requiring abatement on the same day the citation was received. OSHA reinspected the next morning while company officials were discussing corrective procedures and proposed an additional $1,000 failure-to-abate penalty. The Commission held that an…
Kemmerlin Meats, Inc.
Seventeen plant violations affirmed with $235 penalties
Kemmerlin Meats admitted 17 violations at its South Carolina meatpacking plant involving compressed-gas cylinders, machine guarding, electrical wiring and grounding, housekeeping, ladders, knives, sanitation, and equipment labeling. Penalties were proposed for six items, including raw wires…
Echo Hotel, Inc.
Serious egress citation withdrawn with prejudice
OSHA cited Echo Hotel for providing only one interior wooden stairway from second-floor employee sleeping quarters that usually housed six workers. The judge read the notice of contest as challenging only the proposed $500 penalty and treated the serious citation as final. The Commission held that…
Matter of Baker
Third degree assault supported deportation order
A British citizen from Montserrat was convicted in the Virgin Islands of third degree assault and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The immigration judge ordered his deportation because the offense occurred within five years of entry and involved moral turpitude under the immigration law…
International Terminal Operating Company
Four stevedoring items affirmed with $135 penalties
International Terminal Operating Company was cited for conditions during stevedoring work aboard several vessels and on a Brooklyn dock. The judge affirmed an oily deck condition without a penalty, a blocked hatch ladder for $40, an unstable temporary surface under a powered vehicle for $40, and…
Matter of Barragan-Garibay
Prior entry conviction ended exclusion case
A Mexican citizen presented a false registration card at the San Ysidro port of entry and was paroled into the United States for prosecution. He pleaded guilty to illegal entry and served 21 days in prison. In a later exclusion case, the government argued that parole meant he had made no legal…
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.