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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Consolidated Construction, Inc.
Limited EAJA fee award ordered for excavation defense
OSHA cited Consolidated Construction over the slopes of a 35-foot-deep excavation used to repair an underground Air Force fuel tank, but an ALJ vacated both excavation items after crediting the company's expert evidence. Consolidated then sought more than $50,000 in fees and expenses under the…
Keefe Earth Boring Company, Inc.
Relief from seven uncontested citation orders denied
Keefe Earth Boring Company failed to file timely notices of contest to seven citation orders issued in 1987 and 1988 involving trenching, training, and hard-hat requirements. After the Secretary began a federal penalty-collection action, the company sought relief under Federal Rule of Civil…
Capform, Inc.
Excavation inspection and crane-load items affirmed for $800
Capform performed concrete formwork in a 25- to 30-foot-deep excavation at a Dallas construction site. After repeated rain, an unshored excavation wall collapsed while a 100-ton crane was operating above it, killing one Capform employee and injuring another. The ALJ vacated the citation under the…
The Horvitz Company
Serious excavation violation affirmed
Horvitz constructed sewers and catch basins in an excavation about seven feet deep. Before the hearing, the judge allowed the Secretary to amend the citation from the trenching standard to alternatively allege that the excavation lacked protection against moving ground under section 1926.651(c)…
S. Zara & Sons Contracting Co.
Fatal excavation violation found willful
A Zara employee was killed when an inadequately protected, approximately seventeen-foot-deep manhole excavation collapsed and a broken water main flooded it. Zara had extensive sewer-construction experience, trained supervisors, several prior trenching citations, and repeated warnings, yet its rule…
Womack Construction Co., Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissal affirmed; delivery to the corporate office is valid service
Womack Construction was cited for a serious-willful violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.651(c) with a proposed $5,000 penalty. OSHA sent the citation by certified mail to the company's corporate headquarters, where a bookkeeper received it on August 22, 1975. An employer has 15 working days to contest a…
Williams Construction Company
Excavation penalty reduced to $750
Williams Construction installed underground water and sewer lines in a roughly 30-foot-wide, 14-foot-deep excavation. The upper soil was soft and unstable, wet conditions reduced stability, and a nearby backhoe added vibration and load pressure. Two employees worked below a vertical north wall that…
McElwee-Courbis Construction Company, Inc.
Commission affirms an excavation-wall citation after a cave-in, rejecting the employer's slope and employee-misconduct defenses
McElwee-Courbis Construction was building a pumping station and surge tank, which required a large excavation about 68 to 70 feet across. A lower section of the excavation's 18 1/2-foot north wall collapsed, and an employee working between a 4-foot plywood barrier and the wall was pinned by the…
Texaco, Inc.
Serious excavation violation affirmed
Texaco excavated an eight-to-nine-foot-deep hole to repair a leaking water pipe at its Tulsa refinery. Water pumping caused the nearly vertical walls to slough and created large overhangs. Texaco built a two-stage trench box, but employees entered the excavation while only the lower stage was…
Seaward Construction Co., Inc.
Excavation item vacated because moving-ground danger was not proved
Seaward Construction had two employees working in a sewer excavation that contained compacted backfill, some tidal water, limited shoring, concrete-topped banks, and nearby road traffic. OSHA argued that the lack of specified slopes or shoring, together with the site conditions, established a…
Valmore N. LeClerc, doing business as Major Construction Company
Serious excavation citation affirmed with penalty reduced to $250
Major Construction had employees working in a deep excavation beside a house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The excavation walls contained unstable soil, showed prior sloughing and falling material, and lacked adequate shoring or sloping. The judge found a serious violation because a wall collapse…
Navarro Contracting Company
Serious excavation charges vacated, spoil-bank and exit items affirmed
Navarro Contracting was installing a large sewer pipe in a deep excavation and adjoining trench at a Fort Worth shopping-center project. OSHA alleged unstable walls, inadequate precautions near backfill, insufficient trench protection, heavy-equipment loading, a spoil bank too close to the edge…
D & H Pump Service, Inc.
Excavation and barricade violations affirmed
D & H Pump Service performed work in a 14-foot-deep excavation whose nearly vertical sides had begun sloughing and collapsing. The judge found that the company's working vice president and a borrowed equipment operator were protected employees, or alternatively were workers exposed to hazards that…
Onontario of Florida, Inc.
Repeated cave-in violation affirmed for $1,000
Onontario employees installed sewer pipe in an excavation about 12 feet deep where unstable sugar-sand walls had collapsed repeatedly and no shoring was in place. A trench box was available at the worksite but was not used until the compliance officer raised the hazard, after which another cave-in…
Carl E. Widell & Son; L. Feriozzi Concrete Company; L & S Steel Service, Inc.
Excavation citations vacated for lack of moving-ground danger
Employees of three contractors worked in a pumping-station excavation about 48 feet square and 27 feet deep. OSHA alleged that the west wall exposed employees to moving ground because its slope was less than the approximate angle listed in a trenching table. The judge found that OSHA did not prove…
West Coast Construction Co., Inc.
Inadequate excavation sloping upheld
West Coast Construction was installing a storm sewer and had three employees working in a sandy ground opening that was 7.5 feet deep. OSHA cited the company because the opening lacked shoring and its walls were not sloped enough to protect employees from moving ground. The Commission held that the…
Robert T. Winzinger, Inc.
Excavation and backup-alarm items affirmed
Robert T. Winzinger performed work around a 10-foot-deep excavation in sandy, damp, partly backfilled soil near a heavily traveled road. Employees had entered the excavation, its walls were unsupported, and spoil piles up to 40 inches high sat directly at the edges. The Commission affirmed the…
Arlie R. Hawk, General Contractor
Serious excavation citation affirmed
Arlie R. Hawk installed underground storage tanks, septic tanks, and sewer lines. Two men spread sand in a 13-foot-deep excavation that was not shored or sloped when a wall collapsed, killing one man and leaving the other uninjured. Hawk argued that the men were volunteers rather than employees…
W. L. Cobb Construction Co.
Excavation citations reduced to two nonserious violations
W. L. Cobb installed storm-drain pipe in an opening that was wider than it was deep and therefore qualified as an excavation rather than a trench. The judge vacated the trench-specific ladder and unstable-soil citations, including two proposed willful penalties totaling $6,615. He affirmed a…
Graven Brothers and Company
Excavation violations reclassified as nonserious
Graven Brothers excavated a seven-foot-deep pit in sandy clay without adequate shoring, bracing, or sloping. A spoil pile about five feet high was within two feet of one wall, and a 9,000-pound truck operated next to another wall without added support. The Commission found that an employee in the…
Lloyd C. Lockrem, Inc.
Mobile-equipment trench item revived and remanded
Lloyd C. Lockrem installed an underground concrete sewer line in a ground cavity that qualified as a trench. A front-end loader backfilled the cavity with its front wheels as close as 1.5 feet from the edge, and no stop logs or barricades were installed. The judge vacated the cited excavation…
W. J. Barney Corporation
Direction for review vacated
The Commission vacated its direction for review in the W. J. Barney Corporation case by referring to Francisco Tower Service. The attached judge's decision concerned a construction manager whose employees regularly inspected and traversed a construction site. The judge found the company subject to…
Leone Construction Company
Serious trench-support citation reinstated
Leone installed sewer pipe in a ditch about 50 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 7 feet 5 inches deep. Heavy rain entered the unsupported ditch, whose sandy-clay walls showed cracking and erosion. The judge vacated the citation after deciding that the opening was an excavation rather than a trench. The…
Nelco, Incorporated
Excavation citation vacation affirmed
Nelco dug a six-foot-deep, 65-foot-long, 35-foot-wide cavity for a cistern, with vertical unshored walls and an employee working in a roughly two-and-a-half-foot space between an earthen wall and a reinforcing-steel lattice. OSHA initially cited the excavation standard and later alleged the more…
Amulco Asphalt Company
Three serious excavation violations and $1,000 penalty affirmed
OSHA charged Amulco Asphalt with willfully violating three excavation safety standards. The judge found that the company violated all three standards but reduced the classification from willful to serious and assessed a $1,000 penalty. The two sitting Commissioners agreed that the violations were…
Sheesley and Winters Construction Company
Excavation citation and $500 penalty vacated
Sheesley and Winters installed sewer pipe in a ground opening about 13 feet deep, 14 feet wide at the top, and 7 feet wide at the bottom. One wall was nearly vertical and the other was partly sloped, but inspectors observed no cracking, sloughing, or soil movement. The judge found that the company…
Feazell Construction Co.
Serious excavation citation and $700 penalty affirmed
Feazell Construction employees worked in an excavation about 14 feet deep with barely sloped, unsupported walls in backfill soil. Standing water, visible sloughing, and rain-washed spoil showed a moving-ground hazard. Excavated material was also stored within two feet of the edge, and the access…
Pollard, Inc.
Excavation citation affirmed and penalty reduced
Pollard installed concrete pipe in wet, sandy-clay excavations near a heavily traveled Utah highway. Two employees worked in excavations whose walls were not protected by shoring, adequate sloping, or another equivalent method. The Commission affirmed the violation because the employees were…
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…
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.