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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Tom Kubricky Company, Inc.
Trench egress and cave-in violations affirmed
Tom Kubricky Company excavated more than 20 feet below a residential street to repair a broken sewer force main. Two employees worked in a lower trench without a stairway, ladder, or other reliably safe emergency exit. The judge found the earthen end slopes unsafe because they were soft, irregular…
SJ Louis Construction of Texas LTD
Trench egress and cave-in violations affirmed
SJ Louis employees worked in a deep utility trench without a ladder, stairway, ramp, or other safe means of exit. The judge found that the improvised path required employees to climb multiple surfaces near an excavator parked at the trench edge and did not qualify as safe egress. The trench also…
E.R. Zeiler Excavating, Inc.
Trench violations affirmed as serious, not willful
E.R. Zeiler Excavating had four employees working in an approximately 10-foot-deep trench without an adequate cave-in protection system or safe means of exit. The violations were not disputed on review, but the Secretary sought willful classifications based on the company's prior excavation…
Sunland Construction, Inc.
Trench egress item affirmed and cave-in item vacated
Sunland Construction employees installed sandbag trench breaks around a high-pressure gas pipeline. They worked in a trench more than five feet deep without a ladder, stairway, or ramp, and Sunland did not show that climbing over the pipe and sandbags provided safe egress. The judge affirmed the…
Digco Utility Construction
Repeat excavation items vacated
Digco excavated to locate a gas line when an OSHA officer saw the top of a worker's hard hat from the road. By the time the officer reached the site, the foreman had deepened the excavation to 6½ feet, but no employee was inside it. The judge credited testimony that the worker had entered only…
Brocato Construction, Inc.
Trench citations affirmed by default
OSHA cited Brocato Construction at two Mississippi worksites for employees working in excavations without cave-in protection and, at one site, without safe egress. The company timely contested but did not answer discovery, attend scheduled conferences, respond to orders, claim certified mail, or…
Mike Neri Sewer & Water Contractor
Trench violations affirmed with $5,000 penalty
Mike Neri Sewer & Water Contractor excavated a trench for water and sewer work. An employee entered the 5.6-foot-deep trench without a ladder, cave-in protection, or the required setback between the spoil pile and trench edge. The judge credited the compliance officer's testimony and photographs…
Northern Excavating Co., Inc.
Willful cave-in violations affirmed, training and egress items vacated
Northern Excavating employees worked in a Type C soil excavation that ranged from about 7.5 to 12 feet deep without a trench box, shoring, or adequate sloping. The excavation used prohibited benching, had soil sloughing into it, and sat beside a heavily traveled access road where truck vibrations…
Kilby & Gannon Construction Services, LLC
Willful trenching violations affirmed
Kilby & Gannon employees installed drainage pipe in a type-C-soil trench at a parking-garage project. Two workers entered the trench even though it was more than five feet deep, lacked a trench box or adequate sloping, and had no safe egress point within 25 feet. The foreman knew the excavation…
B & B Underground Contractors
Excavation and gas-cylinder violations yield $8,000 penalty
B & B Underground Contractors operated a deep boring pit for a wastewater pipeline project in Alabama. The judge affirmed a serious violation for unsecured gas cylinders and found that the pit's only ramp was unsafe and more than 25 feet from employees' work area. Water was accumulating in the pit…
Shawn Telsi, d/b/a Life Time Homes, Green Pines, and/or Telsi Builders
Excavation violations affirmed with $91,200 penalty
Telsi controlled a temple-construction site where subcontractor employees worked in a deep excavation with vertical walls, large spoil piles at the edges, no nearby safe egress, uncovered holes, defective ladders, and uncapped rebar. The judge found Telsi was both the controlling and creating…
ASM-Sanders, Inc.
Trench violations affirmed and pipe-testing item vacated
A subcontractor's worker was killed when a PVC pipe exploded during compressed-air leak testing at an Air Force base construction project. The judge vacated the general duty clause item because ASM-Sanders' superintendent had explicitly delayed testing until the next day and did not know the…
Degen Excavating, Inc.
Trenching violations affirmed with reduced penalties
An OSHA compliance officer saw a Degen Excavating employee working in an 8.6-foot-deep trench without a ladder, daily competent-person inspection, or cave-in protection. Two supervisors knew and agreed that the employee would enter the trench without the available trench box because they expected…
A. G. Carter Construction Company
Repeated trench warnings supported two willful violations
A. G. Carter Construction installed underground utilities in trenches near Prattville, Alabama. After a fire marshal warned owner Alton Carter about the lack of cave-in protection, a ladder, proper spoil-pile placement, and water controls, similar conditions remained when OSHA inspected one week…
A. L. Grading Contractors, Inc.
Unsafe excavation and untrained flagger drew $25,500 in penalties
OSHA found an untrained employee directing traffic and two workers in a 9.2-foot excavation without cave-in protection or a safe means of egress at an Atlanta-area shopping-center project. The judge rejected the employee-misconduct defense to the training item because the company did not establish…
Mustang Engineering Holdings, Inc.
Missing trench exit affirmed while cave-in item was vacated
Mustang Engineering employees entered a trench to survey a newly installed pipe. OSHA cited the company because the trench lacked a safe means of egress and was not sloped enough for its Class B soil. The judge found that the missing ladder or other exit was obvious to Mustang's foreman, so the…
Martin Construction, Inc.
EAJA filing period began after the judicial-review window closed
Martin Construction prevailed when an administrative law judge vacated six excavation citation items. The company filed an Equal Access to Justice Act fee application 63 days after the merits decision became a final Commission order, and the judge dismissed it as untimely because neither party had…
J.E. Amorello, Inc.
Blocked ramp and missing cave-in protection led to two trench violations
Two employees worked in a trench that OSHA measured at 5 feet 4 inches deep. The ALJ found that a backhoe blocked access to the available ramp, leaving no safe means of egress, and that the trench lacked required cave-in protection. He credited OSHA's testimony over the employer's conflicting…
J. B. Coxwell Contracting, Inc.
Two excavation violations affirmed and two vacated
J. B. Coxwell Contracting was building an underground concrete junction box for a highway storm drain system in Florida. OSHA cited the company for four excavation violations after employees worked in an excavation about 6 feet 8 inches deep. The judge affirmed a serious violation because the…
West Valley Construction Company, Inc.
Two trench items affirmed and three vacated
West Valley Construction employees briefly entered a six-foot-deep trench at a naval air station in Washington while their superintendent watched. The trench had vertical walls in disturbed Type C soil and no cave-in protective system. The judge affirmed a repeat cave-in-protection violation…
Martin Construction, Inc.
Six trench items vacated for lack of knowledge or proof
Martin Construction was the general contractor on a sewer project where a subcontractor's owner was killed in a trench cave-in. OSHA cited Martin as the controlling employer for six alleged excavation violations, including unsafe access, an edge spoil pile, inadequate inspections, and deficient…
Decker Construction
Trench violations result in $5,625 penalty
Decker employees worked in a seven-foot excavation while relocating a fire hydrant. The company had not trained one crew member in excavation hazards, provided no ladder or constructed ramp, left spoil at the edge, and did not slope or shore the Type B soil as required. Those four items were…
North Texas Contracting, Inc.
Trench safety citations affirmed with $9,000 in penalties
North Texas Contracting was installing a box sewer line in a Dallas trench when OSHA found employees working near vertical walls, accumulated water, spoil piles, and an excavator at the trench edge. The judge credited OSHA's measurements and found that the approximately 10-foot-deep excavation was…
Missouri Gas Energy
Late notice of contest reinstated by agreement
Missouri Gas Energy filed a late notice of contest after the original excavation citations were signed for by a clerk and then lost internally. A judge granted the Secretary's motion to reject the notice as untimely, and the employer sought Commission review. While review was pending, the Secretary…
Darby Creek Excavating
Four excavation items vacated and one inspection violation affirmed
Darby Creek Excavating was installing a water line when OSHA found an employee in a deep excavation with accumulated water, no ladder, and no cave-in protection. The judge vacated the general duty clause item because the Secretary did not prove that failing to barricade the excavator's swing radius…
Bridges Grading & Hauling, Inc.
Two trench violations affirmed and inspection item vacated
Bridges was laying storm pipe at a residential development while an employee worked in a trench more than eight feet deep. The judge found that the company provided no safe means of egress and allowed the spoil pile to rise directly from the trench edge without an adequate retaining device. She…
R. Williams Construction Company
Five trench-safety violations affirmed
Two employees entered a waterlogged, unshored sewer trench to clean pumps, and the trench collapsed, killing one employee and severely injuring the other. The judge found that R. Williams provided almost no trench-safety training, lacked a safe egress route, and used supervisors who were not…
RMS Construction, Inc.
Trench and worksite violations affirmed
RMS Construction was a subcontractor building a block wall in a deep trench on a New Jersey road and bridge project. OSHA found RMS employees working outside the trench box in Type C soil, with no safe egress, no competent-person inspections, uncapped rebar, inadequate hazard training and worksite…
Arby Construction Company
Trench cave-in violation affirmed
Three Arby Construction employees worked in a six-foot-deep, vertical-sided Type B soil trench without sloping, shoring, or a trench box. The judge rejected the foreman's claim that he believed the trench was under five feet deep, finding the condition obvious from his position directly above the…
Lakeland Enterprises of Rhinelander, Inc.
Willful trench violation and $50,200 affirmed
A Lakeland employee worked at the bottom of an 18-foot excavation without a ladder or cave-in protection while a part-owner continued operating a backhoe nearby. The judge found that the trench walls were inadequately sloped in Type C soil with pockets of Type B soil and that loose soil was visibly…
Garney Construction, Inc.
Two trench items affirmed and two vacated
Garney Construction was installing large sewer pipe in an excavation nearly eight feet deep in Type B soil. The judge vacated the egress item because a gravel ramp and ladder provided a safe route out of the trench. He affirmed the item involving a 100,000-pound excavator and excavated soil at the…
Hill Brother Construction, Inc.
Late contest dismissed after owner failed to read notice
Hill Brothers' president received OSHA's citations well before the contest deadline but looked only at the proposed penalties and did not read the prominently stated filing instructions. He then consulted several attorneys and made no effort to contact OSHA until more than 40 days after the…
Calhar Construction, Inc.
Trench and backup-alarm violations affirmed
Employees worked in a trench more than seven feet deep with the access ladder over 60 feet away and set at an improper angle. The trench lacked an adequate cave-in protection system, and laboratory testing confirmed that the soil was not stable rock. OSHA also observed a front-end loader backing…
George B. Hardee Construction Company, Inc.
Trenching violations resulted in $36,800 in penalties
George B. Hardee Construction installed a storm sewer pipeline in an excavation in Mobile, Alabama. OSHA found two employees in Type C soil at depths exceeding five feet without cave-in protection, an adequate competent-person inspection, excavation-hazard training, or a safe means of exit. The…
D.R.B. Boring and Drilling Construction Co., Inc.
Four excavation violations affirmed
D.R.B. Boring and Drilling used an excavation approximately 10 feet wide, 32 feet long, and nearly 10 feet deep. The judge found that the ladder and loose-earth ramp did not provide safe access, water had accumulated without adequate precautions, employees lacked protection from falling or rolling…
B. S. Carter Construction Co., Inc.
Training and cave-in violations affirmed
B. S. Carter Construction replaced a drainage pipe in an excavation at least 13.5 feet deep. The excavation collapsed, completely burying one employee and partially burying another; the first employee sustained multiple serious injuries. The judge found that the workers had received no…
C.J. Hughes Construction, Inc.
EAJA award reduced to $19,443.20
C.J. Hughes prevailed in the underlying trench case and received an Equal Access to Justice Act award for fees and expenses incurred contesting six citation items. On review, the Commissioners remained divided over whether the Secretary was substantially justified in litigating the trench-egress…
Fiore Construction Co., Inc.
Willful trench violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Fiore Construction had two employees working in an eight-foot-deep utility trench without a trench box, shoring, or adequate sloping. The foreman had extensive excavation experience, had completed OSHA excavation training, and admitted knowing that cave-in protection was required under the…
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…
Joseph J. Magnolia, Inc.
Willful trench citation vacated, backhoe-bucket general duty violation affirmed
Joseph J. Magnolia, Inc. is a Washington, D.C. area utility contractor that was excavating and installing sewer lines during a hospital expansion. After an OSHA inspection it was cited for one willful and two serious violations. Administrative Law Judge Michael H. Schoenfeld reached a split result…
B & B Plumbing, Inc.
Trench violations reduced from willful to serious
B & B Plumbing was installing sanitation plumbing at a school on the White Mountain Apache reservation in Arizona. Employees worked in a trench with vertical sides that reached about eight feet deep and had no protective system or adequate means of egress; an employee died in a cave-in. The judge…
Black Construction Corp
Trench egress affirmed, loose-soil item vacated
Black Construction employees installed formwork beside sewer lines in a trench at Camp Watkins Road in Guam. An inspector measured the excavation at about six feet deep and saw two employees inside without a ladder or other safe means of egress. The judge credited the inspector's unrebutted…
Dakota Underground, Inc.
Water-accumulation item remanded after court ruling
Dakota Underground performed excavation work in Fargo, North Dakota. The administrative law judge had affirmed willful violations involving trench egress, accumulated water, and cave-in protection, while vacating a competent-person inspection item. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the Commission's final…
Moniger Excavating, Inc.
Trench protection and ladder items vacated for lack of employee exposure
OSHA cited Moniger Excavating after finding a narrow trench about 4.5 to 5.5 feet deep with vertical walls, no protective system, and no nearby ladder. No employee was inside the trench during the inspection, and the company explained that its force-main sewer pipe was assembled and measured from…
Aviation Constructors, Inc.
Willful excavation violation affirmed but penalty reduced
Aviation Constructors hired a subcontractor to install a shotcrete shoring system for a baggage-tunnel excavation at Atlanta's airport. The company knew a registered professional engineer had not approved the design, yet it allowed subcontractor employees to work for ten days in the excavation…
Norm's Utility Contractors, and its successors
Repeat trench-protection and access violations affirmed
Norm's Utility Contractors used trench boxes in a wet excavation about ten feet deep, but several feet of nearly vertical, sloughing soil remained above the boxes. Employees worked from the top of a box below the trench edge and lacked a safe ladder or ramp after earlier ramp access was removed…
Specialized Grading Enterprises, Inc.
Attorney fees awarded for unsupported trench items
Specialized Grading sought fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act after prevailing on four trench citation items. Those items arose from an employee's brief, unauthorized entry into an unprotected trench while working alone. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz held that the Secretary's litigation…
Honey Creek Contracting Co.
Review vacated after employer failed to brief
Honey Creek Contracting petitioned for Commission review of two administrative law judge decisions concerning excavation work in Homer City, Pennsylvania. After directing the cases for review, the Commission ordered Honey Creek to file a brief or a letter in lieu of a brief within 40 days. Honey…
Bovis Construction Corporation
Excavation citations vacated for lack of knowledge
A Bovis Construction subcontractor allowed employees into a deep excavation without a nearby safe exit, adequate water precautions, or cave-in protection. As general contractor, Bovis had enough supervisory authority to require subcontractor compliance, but its liability still depended on actual or…
Kenko, Inc.
Two trench hazards affirmed and egress item vacated
Kenko employees were laying and connecting pipe in a trench more than 11 feet deep. OSHA cited the company for inadequate egress, loose rock or soil on the excavation face, and insufficient cave-in protection. The judge vacated the egress item because the backfill provided a safe way out and the…
Wye Electric, Inc.
Four excavation citations affirmed after employee-misconduct defense fails, $4,350
Wye Electric installs underground power and communication systems. On a construction project in Jackson, Mississippi, its crew dug a roughly 7-foot pit in unstable Type C soil at a former gas station site to set a precast manhole. OSHA cited four excavation violations: no fall barriers at the pit…
Anderson Columbia Co., Inc.
General contractor liable for subcontractor trench hazards
Anderson Columbia Co., Inc. was the general contractor on a Florida storm-drain project where a subcontractor performed the excavation work. OSHA found spoil and heavy equipment too close to the trench edge, no cave-in protection in an 18-foot-deep trench, inadequate access for workers to leave the…
Kenny Niles, d/b/a Kenny Niles Construction & Trucking Company
Business closure did not moot OSHA penalties
OSHA cited Kenny Niles for two willful and nine serious violations after a trench collapse injured an employee. The ALJ dismissed the case as moot after Niles closed his excavation and trucking businesses, sold equipment, and no longer employed anyone. Reconsidering its prior precedent, the…
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…
Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc.
Four trench items vacated, cave-in protection violation affirmed for $3,750
Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc. sent an employee to weld a leaking gas line in an L-shaped excavation dug by an independent contractor in Columbus, Ohio. The Secretary withdrew one citation item before the hearing. Administrative Law Judge Michael H. Schoenfeld vacated the competent-person item because…
Whitacre Engineering Co.
Unguarded runway and exposed rebar produce $4,125
Whitacre Engineering Co. installed reinforcing steel for a steel-mill foundation project in Mansfield, Ohio. Employees crossed a 28-inch-wide aluminum runway that lacked a guardrail on one side, and Whitacre neither asked the general contractor to correct it nor used alternative protection. The…
Kunz Construction Co., Inc.
Four serious excavation-safety violations affirmed
Kunz Construction Co., Inc. was inspected while working near the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, Texas. OSHA found a foreman without a hard hat, an access ladder that did not extend three feet above the excavation, an unguarded plank used as a crossing, and employees in an excavation that was neither…
Broshear Contractors, Inc.
Trench egress and cave-in protection violations affirmed
Broshear Contractors excavated a trench along a public road in Ohio to install a water line. The Commission rejected the company's Fourth Amendment challenge because the compliance officer observed the open trench and employees from a public road, where the company had no reasonable expectation of…
Roberts Pipeline Construction, Inc.
$30,800 in penalties affirmed for eight violations
Roberts Pipeline challenged only the penalties assessed for eight serious violations involving training, head protection, compressed-gas storage, electrical grounding, trench access and inspection, and cave-in protection. The Commission held that the judge had considered the statutory factors of…
Gardner Fire Protection
Trench egress and cave-in items affirmed, daily-inspection item vacated
Gardner Fire Protection, a small pro se contractor, was installing sewer and fire-hydrant lines at a KOA campground in Seminole, Florida. A December 1992 OSHA inspection came the day after a broken water line flooded the excavation overnight and eroded one wall. OSHA cited four serious…
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.