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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Star Brite Construction Co., Inc.
Willful roof-edge violations and cylinder items affirmed
Star Brite replaced large low-pitched roofs at a New Jersey bus complex where employees worked near 25-foot-high unprotected edges and handled roofing materials at the roof edge. The Commission affirmed violations of the general built-up-roofing and roof-edge material-handling fall-protection…
A. J. McNulty & Company, Inc.
Mixed ruling on fall protection during precast concrete erection
A. J. McNulty & Company was erecting a precast concrete parking garage in White Plains, New York, when OSHA cited numerous fall-protection and other safety violations. The Commission rejected McNulty's request to exclude inspection evidence, finding that OSHA substantially honored the company's…
Andrew Catapano Enterprises, Inc.
Separate trench citations largely upheld
OSHA issued nine sets of citations covering 98 alleged violations at separate water-main trench worksites along Eighth Avenue in New York City. The Commission held that the Secretary could inspect and cite the separate worksites independently because correcting a condition in one trench did not…
Metric Constructors, Inc.
General contractor held liable for subcontractor hazards
Metric Constructors was the general contractor for a 29-building federal prison project covering about 200 acres in Estill, South Carolina. OSHA cited scaffold, trench, hazard-communication, fire-extinguisher, compressed-gas-cylinder, and trench-access conditions created by subcontractors whose…
Nooter Construction Co.
Cylinder and ladder items affirmed, scaffold item vacated
Nooter Construction was building coke drums at a New Jersey refinery when OSHA cited compressed-gas-cylinder, ladder, and scaffold conditions. The Commission reversed the ALJ's cylinder ruling, holding that a three-sided cylinder truck was not suitable when its securing chain was left open and the…
Shank-Ohbayashi
One tunnel docket severed, leaving $600 in penalties
Shank-Ohbayashi faced citations from two inspections of its Los Angeles Metro-Rail tunneling project. The cases were tried together, but Commission review was sought only for Docket 88-2674. The Commission severed Docket 88-1711 after finding no party or public interest that warranted further…
Novak & Co., Inc.
Multi-employer worksite citations vacated
Novak, a plumbing subcontractor, was cited for allegedly inadequate overhead protection, improperly stored gas cylinders belonging to another contractor, unguarded floor perimeters, and an open floor hole. The Commission vacated every item. The Secretary did not prove that the entrance canopy was…
Chapman Construction Co., Inc.
Repeated grounding and serious fall violations affirmed
A portable circular saw previously cited for lack of grounding again failed a continuity test, and employees used stairways and landings with missing or inadequate rails. The Commission held that inexpensive continuity testing would have revealed the saw's latent grounding defect through reasonable…
Austin Building Company
Gas-cylinder item affirmed and fall-protection issue remanded
Austin employees welded near an unguarded edge on top of a precipitator where a fall could be nearly 80 feet. OSHA also found an acetylene cylinder ready for use and an oxygen cylinder lying unsecured on the floor. The Commission held that the compressed-gas rule requires cylinders to remain…
Stearns-Roger, Incorporated
Four violations upheld and cylinder item vacated
Stearns-Roger was the general contractor building an addition to a New Mexico power plant. On review, the Commission upheld violations involving inadequate eye protection, unguarded floor holes, construction housekeeping, and welding hoses and cables in passageways. It affirmed the housekeeping and…
Schiavone Construction Co.
Fall protection and cylinder items affirmed, air hose item vacated
Schiavone Construction was building an interstate highway when an employee worked on pile-driver leads without fall protection, about 14 feet above a steel platform and 20 feet above protruding steel piles. The Commission upheld the serious personal protective equipment citation because the…
Savina Home Industries, Inc.
Thirteen construction violations affirmed
At a retail-store construction site, the judge affirmed thirteen nonserious items involving missing hard hats, deficient mobile-scaffold rails, planking and bracing, frayed drill cords, an unapproved receptacle, a knotted winch cable, reversed wire-rope clips, a damaged ladder, a mushroomed…
A. Munder & Son, Inc. and Robert Catino, Inc.
Accessible hazards separated from remote conditions
A. Munder & Son was a sheet-metal subcontractor, and Robert Catino was a carpentry subcontractor, at a New York City building project. Both companies' employees passed near unsecured oxygen and acetylene cylinders that lacked valve caps, so the Commission affirmed the cylinder-storage violations…
Peter Bratti Associates, Inc. & D'Adderio Construction Co., Inc.
Cylinder and fire-protection citations vacated
Bratti performed stonework and D'Adderio performed brickwork on a 15-story construction project where compressed-gas cylinders were found lying on their sides without valve caps. OSHA also alleged that required fire extinguishers were missing. The judge found insufficient evidence that either…
Bechtel Corp.
Citations vacated for lack of employee exposure
Bechtel served as engineer and construction manager at the Trojan Nuclear Plant project in Oregon. OSHA cited housekeeping debris, compressed-gas cylinders without valve caps, and an unguarded recess at the construction site. Other contractors created the cited conditions, and the record did not…
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…
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…
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…
R. H. Bishop Co.
Unguarded-light and grinder penalties assessed
R. H. Bishop was the heating and plumbing subcontractor on a dormitory project at Chanute Air Force Base. The Commission affirmed an unguarded-temporary-light violation because Bishop's employees were exposed, even though another contractor installed and controlled the lighting. It also affirmed an…
Frank Irey, Jr., Inc.
Willful trench violation and $5,335 total penalties affirmed
Frank Irey performed underground electrical-conduit work in a trench about seven-and-one-half feet deep. The trench was not shored or sloped in soft or unstable material, and an employee died when a side collapsed. The administrative law judge classified the trench violation as willful because 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.