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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Secretary of Labor v. Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company, LLC
Secretary of Labor v. Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company, LLC (FMSHRC PENN 2021-0046): Shield-pin and mine-map citations modified
CONSOL Pennsylvania Coal Company operates the Enlow Fork underground coal mine in Pennsylvania. The company conceded that four longwall shields were missing keeper pins, but Judge Jacqueline R. Bulluck found that the Secretary did not prove the missing pins were reasonably likely to let…
Secretary of Labor v. Consol Pennsylvania Coal Co., LLC
Secretary of Labor v. Consol Pennsylvania Coal Co., LLC (FMSHRC PENN 2019-0019): Unlocated gas-well citation vacated
Consol's Enlow Fork longwall intersected an old gas-well borehole that the company and its contractor had been unable to locate from the surface. Their search included maps and databases, aerial photographs, a closely spaced metal-detector grid, and hand excavation, and the cut-through produced no…
Secretary of Labor v. Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company, LLC
Secretary of Labor v. Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company, LLC (FMSHRC PENN 2018-0244): Gas-well barrier citations vacated
MSHA cited Consol Pennsylvania Coal for allegedly failing to obtain gas-well pillar protection approvals for the NV-34 and NV-60 wells near mined-out areas of Enlow Fork Mine. Judge John Kent Lewis held that the oil-and-gas-well rule applies even when wells are drilled behind completed mining, but…
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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.