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.
Westmoreland Coal Company
Trolley-wire citation vacated because miners did not travel under the wire
Westmoreland Coal operated the Bullitt Mine, an underground coal mine in Virginia. MSHA cited the company after finding that a guard around an energized trolley wire had come loose where the wire passed under a conveyor belt. The Commission held that the Mine Act standard required guarding where…
Southern Ohio Coal Company
Safeguard and citations vacated
MSHA alleged that Southern Ohio Coal violated two electrical safety requirements at its Martinka No. 1 Mine and sought civil penalties. Judge George A. Koutras approved the parties' disposition of one citation and vacated it. He found that a mine-specific safeguard requiring short-circuit…
Westmoreland Coal Company
Unguarded trolley wire violation upheld
MSHA cited Westmoreland Coal after finding an unguarded 300-volt trolley wire at the Bullitt Mine where miners regularly traveled by mantrip. Judge Avram Weisberger held that miners passing within about one inch of the energized wire established a violation of 30 C.F.R. § 75.1003(a). He found the…
Consolidation Coal Company
): Settlement approved and citation vacated
Consolidation Coal had two remaining citations in the WEVA 87-42(B) docket. The judge vacated citation 2713101 after medical information showed that an employee suffered grease burns rather than an electrical shock or other life-threatening injury, so the company was not required to report the…
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.