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.
No decisions match these filters
Try fewer or different words, check the spelling, or clear the filters to browse everything.
Secretary of Labor v. Eureka Stone Quarry, Inc.
Blasting a jammed crusher with miners inside costs $56,500
Eureka Stone Quarry runs a stone quarry in Pennsylvania. On August 12, 2014 the impact crusher jammed badly with rock, and the crew spent about three and a half hours clearing it with 16 small explosive charges, climbing inside between blasts to hand-pick material out. The superintendent, who was…
Standard Lafarge
Citation affirmed and penalties reduced
At Standard Lafarge's Marblehead Quarry, a miner was trapped by falling rock while welding inside a surge bin. Judge David F. Barbour affirmed the citation for violating the requirement to prevent miners from being exposed to entrapment by caving or sliding material. The judge found the violation…
Marion County Limestone Company, Ltd.
Crusher-safety violations affirmed
Marion County Limestone operated a portable limestone plant where a quarry foreman stood on an operating jaw crusher and used a sledge hammer to break a lodged rock. The judge found that the foreman was not wearing a safety belt or line, was exposed to falling or sliding material, and was…
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 When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order that binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent: under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j) at OSHRC, and after the 40-day window of 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(1) at FMSHRC.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.