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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Cambria Contracting, Inc.
Asbestos violations reduced from willful to serious
Cambria Contracting removed trash and debris from the basements of interconnected abandoned warehouse buildings where friable asbestos pipe insulation was damaged and missing. Its employees used powered equipment, brooms, and shovels in debris later shown to contain asbestos. OSHA cited eleven…
James R. Howell & Co., d/b/a Howell Construction
Commission holds contractor to the asbestos presumption despite an owner's verbal assurance
Howell Construction was the general contractor for a remodeling project in a pre-1980 pipe-fitters hall in Denver. The building owner verbally told Howell that pipe insulation had been tested and contained no asbestos, but no supporting report was produced before a subcontractor removed presumed…
Odyssey Capital Group III, L.P., d/b/a Cascades Apartments
Commission rejects reliance on limited asbestos studies
Odyssey owned and operated a nine-building apartment complex in Pittsburgh where maintenance employees scraped and repainted pre-1981 ceiling material. The company took none of the asbestos precautions required by OSHA because two earlier environmental studies had reported less than one percent…
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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.