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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Jalco, Inc.
Confined-space rescue failures result in $11,800 penalty
A subcontractor employee lost consciousness after entering a 15-foot sewer manhole without atmospheric monitoring, effective ventilation, or rescue equipment. Jalco's foreman entered without a harness, lifeline, or respirator and became dizzy before climbing out. The judge found that the foreman's…
Downrite Engineering Corporation
Manhole safety violations mostly affirmed
Downrite employees installed a sewer manhole invert while one employee worked at the bottom of a 10-foot manhole and another lowered cement, bricks, water, and tools from above. The judge rejected Downrite's Fourth Amendment challenge because the general contractor and Downrite supervisory…
Galluzzo Equipment & Excavating, Inc.
Most excavation violations affirmed
Galluzzo Equipment & Excavating installed a concrete catch basin and pipe in a street excavation in Lodi, New Jersey. The judge affirmed serious violations involving trench-safety training, the lack of a competent person, missing hard hats, an unsecured pneumatic-hose coupling, an unprotected spoil…
Montgomery KONE, Inc. and Parsons Brinckerhoff Construction Services, Inc.
Elevator pit held to be a confined space
Montgomery KONE employees were modernizing a hydraulic freight elevator at a Philadelphia postal facility when a welding arc ignited flammable vapors in the elevator pit, causing an explosion that injured two workers. The vapors came from primer and cement used to assemble a 70-foot PVC liner and…
R.W. Dunteman Co.
General contractor willfully ignored a subcontractor's trench hazard
R.W. Dunteman Co. was the general contractor on an Illinois road and underground construction project, while a subcontractor performed the below-grade work. Employees of the subcontractor worked in a trench more than six feet deep without adequate sloping, shoring, or a trench box. The judge found…
Bruschi Brothers, Inc.
Most trenching citations affirmed, one vacated in sewer-line excavation case
Bruschi Brothers, Inc., a general contractor, was installing a sewer line in a roughly 13-to-15-foot-deep trench in Chicopee, Massachusetts, when OSHA inspected and found four employees working in it. OSHA issued several serious citations for failing to train workers on trenching and confined-space…
N. M. Savko & Sons, Inc.
Confined-space item affirmed, trench items vacated
N. M. Savko & Sons installed sewer pipe and required an employee to enter a manhole to set up a laser. The judge found the sewer was a confined space and that the employee had not been instructed about its hazards, precautions, or emergency equipment. That serious training violation was affirmed…
Lu Mar Enterprises
Settlement of excavation citations approved
OSHA issued Lu Mar two citations alleging serious and willful excavation-related violations at a New Jersey worksite. After hearings on three dates, the parties reached a settlement and placed its terms on the record. The judge approved and incorporated the stipulated settlement in full. The…
S.A. Healy Co.
Double-jeopardy defense rejected and penalties remanded
S.A. Healy Co. was the tunneling contractor on a Milwaukee sewer project where a methane explosion killed three employees. OSHA issued 68 willful citation items under its instance-by-instance policy, and 49 of those items covered conduct for which the company was also criminally convicted and fined…
Baker Tank Co./Altech, a Div. of Justiss Oil
Tank-entry training and electrical violations affirmed
Baker Tank employees entered an emptied crude-oil storage tank to cut apart an internal aluminum roof using electric saws. Residual sludge contained volatile solvent, and an explosion after the crew reentered the tank killed three employees. The Commission found that Baker had not adequately…
E.L. Davis Contracting Co.
Excavation violations affirmed with $70,500 in penalties
E.L. Davis Contracting was repairing a sewer line when part of a 20- to 22-foot excavation containing two employees caved in. The Commission affirmed serious violations involving the company's safety program, excavation and confined-space training, and the absence of inspections by a competent…
T & S Utilities, Inc.
Training, ladder, hard-hat, and fatality-reporting violations affirmed
T & S Utilities installed sewage-pump-station lines in Fort Myers, Florida, and employees worked inside manholes at the site. The judge vacated a general duty clause allegation because a specific confined-space training standard covered the condition and the record did not show actual atmospheric…
Ed Taylor Construction Co.
Confined-space inspection-program violation affirmed
Taylor Construction employees entered a 24-foot-deep access shaft to close a valve for an artificial lake at an Atlanta office project. Three supervisory employees died after being overcome by an oxygen-deficient atmosphere during the initial entry and rescue attempts. Two related citation items…
J.W. Bill Christie, Inc.
Confined-space citations settled for $240
J.W. Bill Christie repaired natural-gas pipelines and was cited after a gas release in a below-ground manhole overcame two employees, who died. OSHA alleged that employees lacked adequate confined-space hazard instruction, training, and respiratory protection. The judge affirmed two serious…
H.P. Fowler Contracting Corporation
EAJA prevailing-party ruling reversed
Fowler settled citations concerning sewer-manhole hazards after one willful item was withdrawn, two willful items were reduced to serious, and proposed penalties fell from $11,200 to $2,080. The chief judge denied Fowler's application for $6,618.40 in fees and expenses under the Equal Access to…
Del-Mont Construction Co.
Confined-space training violation affirmed for loaned employees
Del-Mont sent two long-term employees to pump water and adjust valves in sewer manholes for another organization. Del-Mont provided the workers and equipment, paid their wages, and retained authority over their assignment, but gave no confined-space training or safety equipment. Both employees and…
CMH Company, Inc.; Carhar Contracting Company, Inc.
Correct employer substituted after fatal accident
Two Carhar employees died in a sewer manhole, but OSHA cited the closely related CMH company after relying on a foreman's mistaken identification. Both corporations had the same owners and officers, and their shared vice-president had assigned the project from CMH to Carhar and received the…
Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation, Texas Eastern Cryogenics Corporation, and Sinapp Co-Staten Island, Inc.
Owners dismissed, contractor case remanded
Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation and Texas Eastern Cryogenics Corporation operated a liquefied-natural-gas facility on Staten Island, and Sinapp performed repair work there. A February 1973 tank fire killed three employees of the facility companies and 37 Sinapp employees. OSHA cited 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.