Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Hercules, Inc. and Alliant Techsystems, Inc.
Recordkeeping failure-to-abate notices vacated
OSHA issued Hercules failure-to-abate notices after a settlement required correction of old injury logs and certifications. The underlying citation listed only broad injury categories and counts, while OSHA repeatedly declined to identify the employees and incidents that had to be added. The…
Union Tank Car Company
Recordkeeping items withdrawn, exposure-record violation left in place
Union Tank Car employees cleaning railcars that had carried electrode binder developed skin and respiratory symptoms, and company monitoring found exposure above OSHA's permissible limit. The judge found that Union Tank Car willfully withheld employee exposure-monitoring records despite repeated…
D.T. Construction Company, Inc.
Three willful trench violations affirmed, most other items upheld, $119,750 penalty
D.T. Construction is a Pennsylvania contractor that installs underground water and sewer lines. After OSHA inspected several of its dig sites in 1998, the agency issued three citations covering willful, serious, and other-than-serious violations. The heart of the case was three willful cave-in…
Hern Iron Works, Inc.
Separate willful recordkeeping penalties upheld and reduced
OSHA cited Hern Iron Works, a small Idaho foundry, for failing to record multiple employee injuries on its OSHA 200 log and supplementary injury records. The Commission held that each separate failure to record an injury can constitute its own violation and support a separate penalty. It affirmed…
General Dynamics Corp., Electric Boat Div., Quonset Point Facility
Recordkeeping citations revived and remanded
OSHA cited General Dynamics' Quonset Point shipbuilding facility for alleged inaccuracies and omissions in required injury and illness records. An administrative law judge vacated the citations as untimely under the OSH Act's six-month limitations period. The Commission reversed, holding that the…
Emerson Electric Company, Electronics & Space Division
Injury-record citation vacated
During an employee-complaint inspection, Emerson Electric allowed OSHA to inspect the stated complaint items but refused access to its injury and illness forms without a warrant or administrative subpoena. OSHA used neither form of legal process and issued a no-penalty citation for refusing the…
A.B. Chance Company
Record-access citation vacated for lack of legal process
A.B. Chance consented to an OSHA inspection limited to employee-complaint items but refused to provide its OSHA injury and illness forms without a warrant. OSHA did not obtain a warrant or issue an administrative subpoena and instead cited the company for denying access to the records. The judge…
Kings Island, Division of Taft Broadcasting Company
Warrantless injury-record citation vacated
OSHA sought three years of Kings Island's injury and illness logs during an inspection prompted by a complaint about theatrical fog. Kings Island offered access limited to the complaint but refused the broader records request unless OSHA obtained a warrant or used other legal process. OSHA instead…
Consolidated Rail Corporation
Record-access citation vacated under then-controlling precedent
Conrail refused to give an OSHA compliance officer access to injury and illness records, relying on Commission precedent that treated railroad recordkeeping as exempt because of Federal Railroad Administration rules. The Commission had since overruled that precedent and held that railroad employers…
General Motors Corporation, Delco Air Conditioning Division
Supplementary injury-record citation vacated
General Motors’ Delco Air Conditioning Division used an alternative supplementary record instead of OSHA Form 101 for occupational injuries and illnesses. OSHA alleged that the company’s form lacked required details, including physician or hospital information and descriptions of how injuries…
J. D. Blum Construction Company
Serious trench citation reinstated
J. D. Blum Construction excavated a water-main trench that was up to 7.5 feet deep, contained wet clay and loam, and was sloped at about 65 degrees without shoring or bracing. The Commission found the soil soft and unstable based on water seepage, sloughing, photographs, and witness testimony. It…
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Co.
Housekeeping and posting items remanded for a hearing
Seaboard Coast Line received five nonserious items for poor housekeeping, failure to post the OSHA notice, and recordkeeping deficiencies. The judge vacated the three recordkeeping items because railroad recordkeeping was exempt, but affirmed the housekeeping and posting items without holding a…
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company
Railroad exemption and bankruptcy defenses rejected
OSHA cited the railroad after inspections at its Kansas City and Joliet workplaces, and the company argued that Department of Transportation authority displaced OSHA jurisdiction and that a bankruptcy injunction barred the proceedings. The Commission held that the statutory exemption for another…
Urban Builders, Inc.
Citations affirmed despite incorrect company name
Urban Builders was the general contractor for an apartment project cited for two serious violations and multiple nonserious violations. OSHA mistakenly addressed the citations to Urban Developers, Inc., a different corporate name. Urban Builders' president had attended the inspection conferences…
Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co.
Forty-six citation items vacated as untimely
OSHA cited 46 alleged safety, health, recordkeeping, and posting violations at Illinois Central Gulf Railroad's locomotive repair facility in Paducah, Kentucky. The inspection was coordinated with the Federal Railroad Administration, and the proposed citation moved through regional and national…
Wayne Taysom & Eli Taysom, d/b/a Taysom Construction Company
Crane power-line violation affirmed with a $300 penalty
Taysom Construction was building a concrete bank vault and used a crane to move cement from a delivery truck to the vault. The crane boom contacted an energized 12,000-volt power line, and the delivery-truck driver was killed when current traveled through the crane cable and bucket. The judge found…
Dayton Tire & Rubber Co.
Recordkeeping duty covered supplied warehouse workers
Dayton operated a tire warehouse using about 65 workers supplied and paid by Manpower, Inc. Dayton selected the workers, trained and equipped them, controlled their schedules and assignments, supervised them, and could discipline or remove them. The Commission held that economic reality made Dayton…
Norfolk & Western Railway Co.
Poster item affirmed, recordkeeping items vacated
Norfolk & Western operated a railroad switching and maintenance yard in Bellevue, Ohio. OSHA cited it for failing to post the required employee-rights notice and for failing to maintain the injury log, supplementary record, and annual summary. The Commission affirmed the poster citation and its $50…
Shaffer Construction & Engineering Co.
Fatal trenching violations affirmed
Eight employees worked in an approximately eight-foot-deep trench cut into soft, wet, unstable soil near highway and railroad traffic. The walls were almost vertical, had no shoring or bracing, and one wall collapsed and killed an employee. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of the…
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…
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…
Puterbaugh Enterprises, Inc.
Trench and recordkeeping violations affirmed
Puterbaugh Enterprises laid sewer pipe in a trench about ten feet deep and two feet wide with vertical walls and no shoring, bracing, sheeting, or sloping. The trench caved in and killed an employee who had returned to resume pipe-laying work. The Commission affirmed the serious trench violation…
Fort Hill Lumber Company
Three failure-to-abate items affirmed
Fort Hill Lumber received a failure-to-abate notice covering nine earlier sawmill violations with more than $16,000 in proposed additional penalties, plus a new lumber-carrier brake citation. On review, the Secretary withdrew five items for lack of proof, and the Commission also left other…
Joseph Bucheit and Sons Co. & A.P. O'Horo Co., Inc.
Gas-line excavation citations vacated
Joseph Bucheit and Sons was a bridge subcontractor, and A.P. O'Horo was the general contractor on a highway project. A bulldozer ruptured an underground gas line during abutment excavation, causing an explosion that killed two workers and injured others. The judge held that 29 C.F.R. § 1926.651(a)…
Automotive Products Corp.
Fourteen non-serious items affirmed
Automotive Products manufactured universal joints, drive shafts, and other metal products. OSHA cited sixteen non-serious conditions involving machinery, facilities, posting, and injury records. The judge affirmed fourteen items and their proposed penalties, totaling $330, but dismissed the…
F. H. Von Damm, Inc.
Three non-serious items and $35 penalty affirmed
F. H. Von Damm was a small wholesaler of animal feed, seeds, and agricultural supplies. The judge affirmed violations for failing to post the OSHA notice, failing to inspect two fire extinguishers annually, and lacking a maintenance tag on another extinguisher. He assessed $35 for the…
Bettendorf Terminal Co. & Le Claire Quarries, Inc.
OSHA jurisdiction and $370 affirmed
Le Claire Quarries employees unloaded, dewatered, stored, and sold river sand at property owned by Bettendorf Terminal. The companies argued that the Federal Metal and Non-Metallic Mine Safety Act displaced OSHA jurisdiction. The Commission rejected that defense because the terminal was ten miles…
CAM Industries, Inc.
Confined-space welding ventilation item reinstated
CAM Industries fabricated steel products and received a multi-item citation covering electrical, welding, housekeeping, eye protection, crane, platform, and recordkeeping conditions. During OSHA's inspection, an employee was welding inside a roughly 100-cubic-foot tank while an available exhaust…
V. O. Hegsted d/b/a Challenger Supply
Pallet-plant citation resolved with $106 in penalties
Challenger Supply produced wooden pallets at a small Idaho plant and received a 12-item other-than-serious citation. The judge affirmed violations involving washing facilities, housekeeping, an unguarded elevated storage area, forklift controls, missing eye protection, electrical grounding and…
Ira Holliday Logging Co., Inc.
Serious log-binder citation vacated
Ira Holliday Logging delivered timber to a sawmill where the mill controlled the unloading process. An employee was fatally struck by a log after releasing all three load binders before the unloading machine secured the load. The Commission held that the sawmill unloading rule applied to the…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- 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 OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.