L.R. Willson and Sons, Inc.

Plain-English summary

A supervisor and crew member performed steel-erection work without the required safety cables. The Commission had previously affirmed the violation as serious, but the Fourth Circuit held that OSHA bore the burden of proving the supervisor's conduct was foreseeable or preventable. On remand, the Commission found that a senior company official had specifically instructed the supervisor that morning to finish work elsewhere and wait for the cables. The supervisor disregarded those instructions even though he knew the cables would not be available until the next day. Because OSHA did not prove foreseeability under the controlling circuit rule, the citation and penalty were vacated.

Decision snapshot

• Cited standard(s): 29 C.F.R. § 1926.750(b)(1)(ii)
• Outcome: The serious fall-protection citation and proposed penalty were vacated.
• Key point: In the Fourth Circuit, OSHA had to prove that a supervisor's misconduct was foreseeable or preventable and could not rely solely on imputed supervisory knowledge.

Full text (OSHRC public release)

                                        :

SECRETARY OF LABOR, :
:
Complainant, :
:
v. : OSHRC Docket No. 94-1546
:
L.R. WILLSON AND SONS, INC., :
:
Respondent. :
:

                                     DECISION

Before: WEISBERG, Chairman; ROGERS, Commissioner.
BY THE COMMISSION:
This case is before the Commission pursuant to a remand order from the United States
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. L.R. Willson & Sons, Inc. v. OSHRC, 134 F.3d 1235
(4th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 142 L.Ed.2d 328 (1998). In its initial decision in this case, the
Commission affirmed the administrative law judge and held that a violation of the fall
protection standard for steel erection at 1926.750(b)(1)(ii) by L.R. Willson & Sons, Inc.
(“Willson”) was serious rather than willful as alleged by the Secretary of Labor (“the
Secretary”). L.R.Willson & Sons, Inc. 17 BNA OSHC 2059, 1995-97 CCH OSHD ¶ 31,262.
In finding a violation, the judge had imputed the acts and knowledge of a supervisory
employee to Willson and rejected Willson’s claim that the violation was the result of
unpreventable misconduct by this employee. The Commission did not review this part of the
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judge’s decision, focussing instead on issues related to the legality of the inspection and the
characterization of the violation by the judge as not willful.
Willson appealed the Commission’s decision to the Fourth Circuit, which affirmed
the Commission’s finding that the inspection had not violated either the Fourth Amendment
of the Constitution or any provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29
U.S.C. §§ 651-678. The court, however, reversed the finding of a violation, holding that the
Commission’s imputation of the supervisor’s knowledge to Willson and its requirement that
Willson show that it had made good faith efforts to comply impermissibly shifted the burden
of proof to the employer in contravention of the rule announced in Ocean Electric Corp. v.
Secretary of Labor, 594 F.2d 396 (4th Cir. 1979). In Ocean Electric, the Fourth Circuit
reasoned that strict imputation of a supervisor’s acts to his employer would frustrate the
purposes of the Act. The court held that, if a violation is reasonably foreseeable, the
employer should be liable, but if the violation is an isolated incident of idiosyncratic or
unforeseeable conduct, the violation should be vacated. In Willson, the court stated that,
“despite a finding of knowledge on the part of a supervisory employee, the Commission [sic]
bore the burden of proving that the supervisory employee’s acts were not unforeseeable or
unpreventable.”1 134 F.3d at 1240. The court remanded this case to the Commission to
determine whether, under Ocean Electric, the Secretary has proved in this case that the
supervisor’s conduct cited was foreseeable or preventable.
We find that the Secretary has not carried that burden. Although the record shows
that Willson had reason to know that its locally-hired work force, which included this
supervisor, was not diligent about following safety requirements, and that it might have
foreseen violations of the fall protection standard, the supervisory employee involved in the

1
As the Supreme Court has noted, the Commission is a “neutral arbiter” in these proceedings.
Martin v. OSHRC, 499 U.S. 144 (1991), citing Cuyahoga Valley Ry. v. United Transp.
Union, 474 U.S. 3, 7 (1985) (per curiam). As such, it is not an active party and therefore has
no burden to carry. It is the Secretary of Labor, as complainant in each case before the
Commission, who has the burden of proof.
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misconduct had been specifically instructed on the morning of the inspection by Willson’s
vice-president of field operations, its highest-level employee on the site, to finish work in
another area and wait for the safety cables before beginning work in the area where the
violation occurred. He nevertheless disregarded those instructions and took one of his three
crew members with him to that area even though he knew that safety cables could not be
erected until the day after the inspection.
Under these circumstances, we conclude that the Secretary has not carried her burden
of establishing foreseeability under Ocean Electric. Therefore, consistent with the court’s
remand, we vacate the citation and proposed penalty.

                                                     /s/
                                                     Stuart E. Weisberg
                                                     Chairman

Date: April 7, 1999 /s/
Thomasina V. Rogers
Commissioner