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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New Warwick Mining Company
Coal-dust orders mixed, $5,975 total penalty assessed
New Warwick Mining Company's consolidated cases concerned coal and coal-dust accumulations, preshift examinations, a defective ladder, and battery-charger ventilation at its Warwick Mine. Judge Arthur J. Amchan affirmed several violations and orders, vacated others, and found the affirmed…
Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company
Ventilation citations affirmed without S&S findings
Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal challenged three citations alleging that preshift examinations did not check air passing by openings to abandoned mine areas before that air mixed with other intake air. Judge Roy J. Maurer held that 30 C.F.R. § 75.311 required the examinations at or immediately inby the…
Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company
104(b) withdrawal order vacated
Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company contested an MSHA withdrawal order involving inadequate illumination on a scoop at its Greenwich Collieries No. 2 underground coal mine. The inspector treated the incomplete illumination installation as a failure to abate the cited condition under section 104(b)…
Jim Walter Resources, Inc.
Nonpermissible distribution box violation affirmed
MSHA found a nonpermissible electrical distribution box in a crosscut at Jim Walter Resources' No. 5 underground coal mine. The Commission held that the crosscut was the last open crosscut between the relevant entries, so the equipment violated the Mine Act standard requiring permissible equipment…
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.