Federal Agency Decisions
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), and environmental appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Road Fork Development Company, Inc.
Late section 110(c) petition rejected and hearing continuance denied
MSHA repeatedly changed course on whether to pursue a section 110(c) case related to Road Fork Development's pending penalty dockets and filed its petition nearly two years after the underlying events. Judge Thomas P. McCarthy found that the Secretary did not adequately explain the service delay…
Cactus Canyon Quarries of Texas, Incorporated
Motions to dismiss denied
Cactus Canyon operates a small quarry in the Texas Hill Country. The company asked the judge to dismiss seven civil penalty proceedings because MSHA took too long to assess penalties and file petitions. Judge Irwin Schroeder found that the delays were not so long or prejudicial as to bar hearings…
James Lee Hancock, employed by Pittsburgh & Midway Coal Company
Motion to dismiss denied and penalty filing accepted
James Lee Hancock, an employee of Pittsburgh and Midway Coal Company at the Cimmarron Mine, asked the judge to dismiss a personal civil-penalty case because the Secretary had taken too long to file the penalty petition. Judge Paul Merlin accepted the Secretary’s explanation for the filing delays…
Lakeview Rock Products, Inc.
Extension request denied
Lakeview Rock Products asked for 30 more days to file a petition for discretionary review of an administrative law judge’s decision. The Commission held that the request was received after the 30-day filing period and did not state grounds for appeal, so it denied the extension and rejected…
Secretary of Labor v. Curtis Crick, James Bo Jones, and Charley Wright
Individual penalty cases dismissed as untimely
The Secretary sought individual civil penalties against three Island Creek Coal Company agents for an alleged violation involving coal accumulations under 30 C.F.R. § 75.400. The penalty petitions were filed 70 days after the respondents' notices of contest, beyond the 45-day period in Commission…
Rhone-Poulenc of Wyoming Co.
Late penalty filing denied and case dismissed
MSHA issued a citation to Rhone-Poulenc of Wyoming Co. and notified the operator of a proposed $1,000 penalty 237 days later. The Secretary filed the penalty proposal two weeks after the Commission deadline and attributed the delay to changes in the assessment process, a prior enforcement program…
A. H. Smith Stone Company
Default entered and case dismissed
A. H. Smith Stone Company failed to timely answer a show cause order in a civil penalty proceeding involving its Branchville Mine. Judge Paul Merlin considered the operator's explanations that research would be difficult because former employees were unavailable and that the order had been…
What these documents are
- The agencies: Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), and environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB). Each decision page names its agency.
- Commission and Board decisions: Rulings by the agency's highest review level (the Commission at OSHRC and FMSHRC, the Environmental Appeals Board at EPA). These are citable as precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by the agency's Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order that binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent: under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j) at OSHRC, and after the 40-day window of 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(1) at FMSHRC.
- 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 public release from the deciding agency, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.