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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Mondo Construction Company, LLC
Trench items affirmed but repeat classification rejected
Mondo employees worked in a utility trench with deep side channels while installing plywood shoring that lacked the braces required by the company's engineering plan. The judge measured the excavation from the channels because they extended to the walls and increased the wall load, making the…
Jim Boyd Construction, Inc.
Excavation case remanded under ComTran knowledge rule
Jim Boyd Construction installed trench shields for a Georgia natural-gas project where another contractor's employees worked in the excavation. An administrative law judge vacated two shield items, affirmed a lateral-movement item as serious, and reduced a cave-in protection item from willful to…
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…
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…
A.P. O'Horo Company, Inc.
Willful trenching and training violations affirmed
A.P. O'Horo employees were installing sewer pipe in a 10-foot-deep trench beside a heavily traveled Ohio highway when a wall collapsed and buried a pipe layer, who died several days later. The Commission found that the trench was not adequately sloped, shored, braced, or protected by the available…
Potomac Electric Power Company
Trench-support citation settled for $1,000
OSHA cited PEPCO after employees entered an approximately 11.5-foot-deep trench before an adequate support system was installed. An ALJ affirmed the trench-support violation with a $200 penalty and severed a separate ladder-access allegation. During Commission review, the parties settled the…
Trumid Construction Co., Inc.
Serious trench-support and hard-hat violations affirmed
A Trumid employee was fatally injured when a trench wall collapsed during pipe-laying work, and the company did not report the accident to OSHA. The ALJ vacated the trench-support item after measuring depth from a bench below the original ground level, but affirmed a hard-hat violation. The…
Calang Corporation
Willful trench violations affirmed with $8,000 penalty
Calang employees and the company president worked in a roughly nine-foot-deep sewer trench with sandy soil, inadequate sloping, no shoring, and a spoil pile at the trench edge. Before excavation began, the OSHA inspector told the president that the trench needed approximately one-to-one sloping or…
Burlington Northern Railroad Company
Fatal trench case remanded for the railroad agency's views
A trench beside Burlington Northern's tracks collapsed while employees installed a sewer line, killing one employee. The judge affirmed several serious trenching items, but Burlington Northern argued that Federal Railroad Administration regulation displaced OSHA's authority. The Commission found…
John R. Jurgensen Company
Repeated trenching violation affirmed
Jurgensen was installing a drain line beside an older pipeline when part of an unshored trench wall collapsed on an employee. The Commission found the wall unstable because the new trench intersected backfill and gravel from the earlier excavation, and Jurgensen did not prove that the old fill had…
General Motors Corporation, Rochester Products Division
Unshored-trench and training items affirmed
GM employees dug and shored a deep trench inside a manufacturing building to install an oil-collection trough. A worker was injured when an unshored wall collapsed as he used an unshored leg of the trench to leave the work area. The Commission affirmed a serious trenching violation because GM left…
Austin Engineering Company, Inc.
Crane and trenching violations affirmed
Austin Engineering installed a water main in a deep trench using a truck crane. The Commission reversed the judge and found a nonserious fire-extinguisher violation because extinguishers on pickup trucks about 100 feet away were not available at the crane cab as the standard required; it assessed…
D.A. & L. Caruso, Inc.
Willful trench-support violation affirmed
D.A. & L. Caruso employees worked in a 12-to-15-foot-deep trench without shoring, a trench box, or adequate sloping. Portions of the wall had collapsed the previous day while employees were inside, and water was entering near an existing sewer line. The judge vacated the citation after crediting…
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)…
Davis-McKee, Inc.
Serious trench-sloping violation affirmed
Two Davis-McKee employees operated a compactor in a trench more than 17 feet deep. One wall near a concrete caisson contained a substantial wedge of unsupported soil, and the opposite wall was steeper than the standard allowed. The Commission held that the caisson did not serve as shoring because…
CCI, Inc.
Serious trenching violation affirmed
CCI employees worked in a 13- to 15-foot-deep trench with vertical, unsupported walls made of layered soil. The Commission held that a trench containing a significant amount of hard or compact soil must comply with the shoring or sloping requirements even if some layers may be cemented material. It…
R. Zoppo Co., Inc.
Serious trenching violation affirmed
R. Zoppo challenged the judge's finding that a trench was inadequately sloped and the classification of the violation as serious. After reviewing the record, the Commission adopted the judge's findings and affirmed the serious trenching violation and $750 penalty. Commissioner Cottine concurred but…
Sam Hall & Sons, Inc.
Equipment lessor responsible for employees in unsafe trench
Sam Hall & Sons supplied boring equipment and two operators for a city pipeline project. The operators worked in a deep, nearly vertical trench with wet soil and spoil piled at its edge. The judge vacated the citations because the city created and supervised the trench. The Commission held that Sam…
Capital City Excavating Co., Inc.
Late contest leaves trench citations final
OSHA sent Capital City trench citations and a proposed $550 penalty by certified mail. A clerical employee accepted them at the company's office on September 13, 1978, but the company did not mail its contest until October 6 or 7. The Commission held that delivery to an employee who accepts…
Austin Road
Repeated trench violation remanded under Potlatch test
Austin Road was cited for a serious and repeated violation after employees worked near an inadequately protected trench in hard or compact soil. The judge found the violation repeated under an older test. The Commission set aside that classification and remanded for reconsideration under its…
George J. Igel & Co., Inc.
Defective fire extinguisher and inadequate trench shoring both upheld
This pipe-laying contractor was inspected at a trench worksite and cited for two things: a portable fire extinguisher in a backhoe cab whose gauge showed it needed recharging (nonserious, 29 C.F.R. § 1926.150(c)(1)(viii)) and inadequate shoring in a trench 7 to 13 feet deep (serious, 29 C.F.R. §…
Andy Anderson, d/b/a Andy Anderson Irrigation & Construction
Trench-cave-in violation upheld, penalty cut to $150
This employer was installing sewer pipe in a 70-foot trench that ran 6 to 8 feet deep with nearly vertical, unshored walls and no ladder for exit. OSHA cited a serious violation for failing to shore or slope the trench under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(c) and for failing to provide an adequate means of…
Shaw Construction, Inc.
Serious trench-shoring violation affirmed
This decision followed a Fifth Circuit remand requiring two Commission members to agree on the trench-shoring citation rather than leaving the judge's ruling in place through an evenly divided vote. Shaw's trench was about nine feet deep, with six to seven feet cut through limestone and the upper…
Cagle Construction Co.
Trench citation vacatur affirmed
The judge vacated a trench citation after finding that the Secretary did not prove noncompliance with either 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(c), as cited, or § 1926.652(b), as alleged in the complaint. The Secretary sought review of a legal conclusion and several statements about government counsel's conduct…
Mid-States Construction Co., Inc.
Trench and crane rulings affirmed in two-member impasse
Mid-States Construction Co., Inc. was cited over trench shoring, an unbarricaded crane swing radius, and unguarded moving machine parts. Both commissioners agreed that the crane required a physical barricade and affirmed that violation. They disagreed about the trench-shoring violation and whether…
Joe Richter, Contractor, Inc.
Trench citations and $265 penalties affirmed
Three employees worked in an eight-foot-deep trench beside a heavily traveled road, with a vertical unshored wall, water in the trench, and spoil near an edge. They lacked head protection, and the earth ramps serving as exits were wet, unstable, and partly obstructed. The Commission found that pipe…
Capaldi Brothers Corporation
Trench citation remained vacated after amendment split
OSHA cited Capaldi Brothers under the trench rule for soft or unstable soil. The judge found that OSHA had not proved that soil condition, vacated the citation, and denied a posthearing request to amend to the rule for hard or compact soil. Chairman Cleary would allow the amendment and found the…
Lisbon Contractors, Inc.
Trench violation reduced to nonserious
Lisbon Contractors was laying sewer pipe in Exton, Pennsylvania, where two employees worked in an unsupported trench with partially sloped sides. The trench was eight feet deep and five feet wide at the top, but the cited standard required a top width of five and one-half feet. The Commission…
Fanning & Doorley Construction Co., Inc.
Willful trench violation affirmed
Fanning & Doorley was installing underground telephone ducts in Lincoln, Rhode Island, when an unshored trench wall collapsed and killed an employee. The Commission credited evidence that the trench was more than six and one-half feet deep and that the foreman knew the shoring requirement but…
CTM, Inc.
Commission affirms serious trench-sloping and adjacent-backfill violations
CTM, Inc., a utility contractor, had two employees working in a roughly nine-foot-deep trench while installing a 48-inch water main. The Commission upheld findings that the trench was dug in hard or compact soil, its walls were nearly vertical rather than adequately sloped or shored, and additional…
Nevada Pipe Line Construction Co.
Commission affirms a $250 serious trench violation beside backfilled soil
Nevada Pipe Line Construction opened a 60-foot-long trench to install a storm drain. The trench was about nine and one-half feet deep, only slightly sloped, and had no shoring or bracing. Part of one wall consisted of recently backfilled material that had not yet regained the properties of the…
R.A. Pohl Construction Co., Inc.
Trench citation vacated over uncertain soil type
OSHA cited sewer contractor R.A. Pohl after employees worked in a roughly 16-foot-deep trench whose south and east sides were neither sloped nor shored. Pohl argued that the excavation passed through material solid enough to stand vertically without support. The witnesses gave conflicting…
Environmental Utilities Corp.
Trench violation reclassified as serious
Environmental Utilities installed sewer pipe in trenches in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Two employees remained in the Marietta Pike trench after two of three trench jacks were removed, leaving the trench inadequately protected from a cave-in. The Commission changed the judge's classification from…
Quillian Pipe Company, Inc.
Trench violation reduced from willful to serious
Quillian Pipe employees worked in an inadequately protected trench that was more than five feet deep while installing underground pipeline in Macon, Georgia. OSHA had recently explained trenching requirements to the company's president after an earlier inspection, then cited the later condition as…
Patterson & Wilder Construction Co., Inc.
One repeat trench spoil violation affirmed and trench-support citation vacated
Patterson & Wilder Construction was installing sewer drain pipe at two worksites in Washington, Georgia. OSHA cited the company for storing excavated soil too close to trench edges and for failing to shore or adequately slope a trench in hard or compact soil. The judge affirmed the spoil-pile…
Tip-Top Plumbing & Heating Co.
Trench-shoring item affirmed and added-precautions item vacated
Tip-Top Plumbing & Heating was relocating water lines during sewer work in Kansas City, Missouri. One employee worked for about 30 to 40 minutes in a narrow trench approximately nine feet deep and twelve feet long without shoring or sloping. The company chose to proceed quickly to restore water…
The Pioneer Company
Trench and retaining-wall violations affirmed
Pioneer employees worked in a narrow trench between a 15-foot retaining wall and a nearly vertical excavated hillside made of shattered shale, sandstone, fill, and seeping material. The trench had no adequate shoring or slope. Other employees, including a foreman, used the unguarded 18-inch-wide…
D. Federico Co., Inc.
Trench exit and spoil-pile items affirmed
D. Federico was installing a sewer in a 14-foot-deep trench where an employee worked inside an open-topped wooden manhole chamber. The Commission held that soil stored within two feet of the trench exposed the employee to a hazard and that neither an eight-foot ladder nor a loose backfill ramp…
Wes Construction Corporation
Trench and traffic-control violations affirmed with reduced penalties
Wes Construction was performing pipe work in a cavity that was 12 feet wide, 15 feet long, and 9 feet deep near heavy traffic in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The Commission held that the cavity qualified as a trench even though it was wider than it was deep. Three sides were vertical, the roadside…
Harrington Construction Corporation
Excluded soil testimony requires remand
Two Harrington employees worked in an unshored trench that was about 30 feet long, 30 inches wide, and between 6 and 6.5 feet deep. The judge excluded a compliance officer's observations that the soil was sticky, soft, wet, sandy, clay-like, and partly backfill because the officer was not qualified…
Water Works Installation Corp.
Trench violations affirmed with increased penalties
Water Works Installation employees worked in a 9-foot-deep trench in hard or compact soil that was not shored, sloped, or otherwise protected. The site also involved employees without hard hats and a person standing beneath a load handled by a hoist. The judge affirmed a serious trench-support…
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…
Hammet Company, Inc.
Trenching citations vacated
Hammet excavated a trench with two sections, each more than five feet deep. OSHA initially cited the soft-or-unstable-soil trenching rule, but on review conceded that the soil was hard and compact and sought to substitute the hard-soil rule. The Commission held that the record did not prove either…
Colorado Pipe Lines, Inc., d/b/a CPL Constructors
Unprotected trench violation affirmed as serious
Colorado Pipe Lines was cited for a willful violation involving an inadequately protected trench and excavated material placed near its edge. The trench was 12 to 14 feet deep, and employees were exposed while its sides were not adequately shored or sloped. The Commission agreed that the evidence…
W. N. Couch Construction Co.
Trench citation vacated for lack of soil proof
W. N. Couch Construction excavated a 10-to-12-foot-deep pipeline trench with vertical lower walls, horizontal benches, and vertical upper walls. OSHA cited the trench under the rule for soft or unstable soil, but the compliance officer described the material as soft and crumbly while 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…
Paul L. Heath, d/b/a Paul L. Heath Contracting Co.
Trench and PPE citations affirmed with $525 in penalties
Paul L. Heath Contracting excavated a sewer trench that was about 55 feet long, six to eight feet deep, and nearly vertical, without shoring or adequate sloping. An OSHA inspector testified that he saw the company's employee climbing out of the trench at a point about seven feet deep. The employee…
Francis E. Figley
Excavation and traffic-sign citations vacated by an equally divided Commission
Francis E. Figley was boring beneath a roadway from a deep excavation for a sewer line. OSHA cited the company for failing to shore or properly slope the hard or compact upper soil and for failing to post traffic signs near the excavation, which was about 10 feet from a heavily traveled highway…
Shaw Construction Company
Two serious trench citations and $350 in penalties affirmed
Shaw Construction excavated a trench about five feet wide, 20 feet long, and nine feet deep for utility cables. Excavated material was piled within two feet of the edge, increasing the load on the trench wall and creating a risk that debris could fall onto employees. The trench sides 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…
Cedar Construction Co.
Repeated spoil-pile violation and $1,275 penalty affirmed
Cedar Construction piled a seven-foot spoil bank, including clods weighing up to 20 pounds, directly at the edge of a 12.8-foot-deep trench where employees worked. The company had a prior final citation for the same spoil-placement standard at another Nebraska worksite, and the Lincoln foreman knew…
Horowitz Bross., Inc.
Serious trench citation vacated for lack of proof
Horowitz was laying water pipe in a trench that was about 88 feet long, roughly six feet deep, three feet wide at the bottom, and seven feet wide at the top. OSHA alleged that the trench violated the rule for hard or compact soil because it was not adequately shored or sloped. The Commission held…
Danco construction Company
Mixed ruling on sewer-work citations and penalties
Danco received consolidated citations from three Little Rock sewer-construction sites involving posting, hard hats, fire protection, fuel handling, trenching, electrical equipment, ladders, traffic visibility, and spoil placement. The Commission held that Danco's timely contest of a citation also…
M-CO Equipment Co., Inc.
Crane fire-extinguisher item reinstated
M-CO Equipment was installing a sewer line at an Arizona construction site. A required fire extinguisher for a crane was kept in a pickup truck normally about 150 feet away, and the truck moved around the worksite. The Commission held that this did not make the extinguisher accessible and available…
Frank Galey, Jr., d/b/a Galey Construction Co.
Ladder item reinstated and trench violation classified as nonserious
Galey Construction installed drain pipe in a long trench that reached approximately 18 feet deep at its western end. The Commission affirmed a trenching violation as nonserious because the hard, compact soil was nearly sloped to the required angle and the record did not establish a substantial…
C. N. Flagg & Company, Inc., d/b/a Northeastern Contracting Company
Serious trench violation affirmed, willful citation vacated
Flagg was installing sewer pipe in a trench more than 15 feet deep. The trench boxes and sheeting did not protect the bottom portion, where employees worked, and the Commission upheld the finding that the soil was unstable. It affirmed a serious trenching violation and its $700 penalty from the…
McGuire & Hester
Trench and spoil-pile violations affirmed
McGuire & Hester reopened a trench to reposition a water line beneath a gas main. An employee worked in a section more than five feet deep that lacked adequate shoring or compliant sloping, while traffic and heavy equipment operated nearby. Excavated soil three to four feet high was also piled…
State Contracting Co., Inc.
Hard-hat item affirmed, trench penalties reduced
Two State Contracting employees worked in a deep trench that lacked required shoring or sloping, had no ladder for exit, and exposed them to falling material without hard hats. The employer had supplied hard hats and required their use, but the parties tried whether the employees actually wore…
Horne Plumbing & Heating Company
Serious trenching violations affirmed
Horne Plumbing & Heating was installing sewer pipe in a trench at a Georgia church project. A cave-in killed the job foreman and another employee, and the first inspection found undersized shoring in a roughly 17-foot-deep trench and excavated soil stored less than two feet from its edge. A later…
Bayside Pipe Coaters, Inc.
Subcontractor remains responsible for its trench crew
Bayside Pipe Coaters sent a foreman and two employees to waterproof pipe in a trench excavated by a general contractor. The company admitted that the trench, spoil-pile, and compressed-gas-cylinder conditions violated OSHA standards but argued that its contract made the general contractor solely…
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.