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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B. S. Carter Construction Co., Inc.
Training and cave-in violations affirmed
B. S. Carter Construction replaced a drainage pipe in an excavation at least 13.5 feet deep. The excavation collapsed, completely burying one employee and partially burying another; the first employee sustained multiple serious injuries. The judge found that the workers had received no…
Double "A" Industries, Inc.
Roofing subcontractor's safety citations affirmed under the multi-employer worksite rule
Double "A" Industries is a small south Florida shell contractor that took a $38,000 contract to build a guardhouse and subcontracted the roofing labor out. An OSHA officer inspecting a nearby site watched roof workers for about 40 minutes without fall protection or hard hats and improperly using…
D.C. Pagers, Inc., d/b/a Superior Service
$5,224.47 fee award granted
D.C. Pagers prevailed in an earlier case after two electrical-safety items were vacated and a third item citing a nonexistent standard was dismissed. It sought attorney fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The judge found that the Secretary was not substantially justified in…
M.P. Dory Co.
Settlement approved, training citation affirmed and two others vacated
M.P. Dory Co., a stucco construction employer in Columbus, Ohio, was inspected by OSHA and issued a citation for three serious violations of construction safety standards. The company contested all of them, but before the hearing concluded the parties reached a settlement, which they placed on the…
R.B. Thomas Electric, Inc.
Aerial-lift and safety-program violations affirmed
An OSHA compliance officer saw a Thomas Electric apprentice working 15 to 20 feet above concrete in an aerial lift without a safety harness. The judge found that the company was still performing construction work and had not arranged regular competent-person inspections or systematically trained…
Westar Mechanical, Inc.
Serious trench violations and $31,950 penalties affirmed
Westar and a subcontractor installed a sewer line in unprotected excavations on two consecutive days. On the second day, a trench wall collapsed, a water main broke, and two trapped workers drowned as the trench filled with water. The Commission held that separate cave-in and competent-person…
Modern Continental Construction Company, Inc.
Rigging-training and suspended-load violations affirmed
At Boston's Big Dig, employees removed shoring through a small ceiling access hole. A vertically rigged bundle of seven-foot cross braces slipped and fell through the opening, impaling an employee in the head. The judge found that Modern had not adequately trained the crew for vertical lifts…
Sema Construction, Inc.
Training citation vacated after a load unexpectedly kicked free of an excavator
SEMA Construction was doing bridge demolition work at a job site in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In September 2000 a laborer helping load scrap metal was struck and seriously injured when a long piece of box tubing being moved by an excavator unexpectedly kicked free of the bucket and was propelled…
D.C. Pagers, Inc., d/b/a Superior Services
Electrical-training and eye-protection items vacated
D.C. Pagers performed electrical contracting work at a site in St. Clairsville, Ohio. OSHA alleged that employees lacked safety training for live electrical work and did not use appropriate eye protection while checking an electrical panel or cutting PVC pipe. The judge found that OSHA had not…
Danis Shook Joint Venture, XXV
Basin-hazard training and PPE violations affirmed
Danis Shook was building wastewater equalization basins where accumulated water was held above a 42-inch drain by a plywood plug. A pipefitter foreman entered the water without protective equipment, the plug dislodged, and the draining water pulled him into the pipe, where he drowned. The…
Field & Associates, Inc.
Commission affirms the fall-protection citation but throws out the material-storage citation for lack of exposure
Field & Associates is a roofing contractor. In August 1997, two of its employees were distributing bundles of shingles along the peak of a new church roof in Tipp City, Ohio, with no fall protection when two OSHA compliance officers passing by stopped to inspect. OSHA issued five serious citation…
Performance Site Management
Cave-in citation affirmed after a fatal trench accident, safety-program and training items vacated
Performance Site Management is a site-development contractor that was installing sewer lines for a housing project in Cleves, Ohio. A trackhoe bucket, attached with a quick-coupler hitch, came loose and fell into an excavation, fatally injuring a worker who was inside. After a fatality…
Capform, Inc.
Commission affirms a training violation after a fatal form-stripping accident
Capform is a concrete-form contractor that was building a research facility at a Dallas medical center. Its crews strip out the wood-and-jack shoring that supports each poured concrete floor, an operation the company itself treats as hazardous. On the day of the accident, a foreman borrowed three…
Nova Fedrick/AJV, and its successors
Trencher-training citation vacated, vehicle item affirmed without penalty
Nova Fedrick/AJV was installing a fuel pipeline at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. An employee working close to a high-speed trencher was pulled into its cutting mechanism and killed. OSHA alleged that employees had not been instructed to recognize and avoid the hazards of working near the…
W. G. Fairfield Company
Highway contractor had to address safe roadway crossing in its program and training
W. G. Fairfield Company employees were digging a trench beside a six-lane interstate in Cincinnati to install fiber-optic cable. After the crew struck an abandoned cable, an employee crossed the three northbound lanes on foot to inspect a median junction box and was fatally struck while attempting…
Thiro USA, Inc.
Utility-pole training and fall-protection violations affirmed
Thiro USA is an electrical utility construction company. During a November 1999 inspection at a utility-pole worksite in Everett, Massachusetts, an OSHA compliance officer saw two Thiro employees working from the elevated end of a derrick truck boom, at least 15 feet up, without fall protection…
Freeze Technology International, Inc.
Mixed ruling after nitrogen asphyxiation at pipeline freeze site
Freeze Technology used liquid nitrogen to form ice plugs in an underground water pipeline so Enerpipe could perform hydrostatic testing at a remote Oklahoma ranch. Two night-shift workers were found dead inside the freeze excavation after nitrogen gas displaced the oxygen. The judge affirmed…
B & B Plumbing, Inc.
Trench violations reduced from willful to serious
B & B Plumbing was installing sanitation plumbing at a school on the White Mountain Apache reservation in Arizona. Employees worked in a trench with vertical sides that reached about eight feet deep and had no protective system or adequate means of egress; an employee died in a cave-in. The judge…
Mac Construction
Fall-protection case settled for $1,100
Mac Construction performed construction work in Wisconsin. OSHA cited the company for inadequate jobsite inspections, insufficient safety training, employees working more than 25 feet above a lower surface without fall protection, and employees using aerial lifts without personal fall-arrest…
O'Brien Concrete Pumping, Inc.
Hopper training and machine-guarding violations affirmed
O'Brien Concrete Pumping operated trucks with rotating auger blades inside concrete hoppers, and one operator was fatally crushed by the blades after a concrete pour. The company had removed bolts securing the heavy hopper grate so operators could raise it while cleaning and repositioning the…
Malu Construction Co., and its successors
Jury-rigged scaffold items affirmed for $8,000
Malu called its framing workers independent subcontractors, but it supplied their scaffold and safety equipment, assigned their work, provided training, and retained authority to stop work. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz therefore treated them as Malu employees under the common-law control test. OSHA…
White Electrical Construction Company
Active-train training and barricade violations affirmed
White electricians worked on an elevated Jacksonville transit line beside an active track carrying quiet, remotely operated trains. The foreman knew the unusual site and train-control procedures but gave only general warnings, provided no communication device to the remote crew, and used no…
Access Equipment Systems, Inc.
Scaffold supplier liable for hazard to another employer's workers
Access Equipment Systems leased and erected mast-climbing scaffolds for a condominium project in Miami, Florida. One scaffold collapsed after an Access lead employee added a fourth platform extension without load-capacity information, killing three employees of a plastering subcontractor. The…
CMC Electric, Inc.
Electrical-hazard and worksite-safety items affirmed
CMC Electric sent three journeyman wiremen to install electrical service at a cellular-telephone construction site near Andover, Ohio. An employee died after climbing a utility pole and contacting an energized 7,200-volt line that was not shown on the work schematic. CMC had not inspected for…
Fleming Construction, Inc.
Construction-manager citations vacated for lack of supervisory control
Fleming Construction provided construction-management services for a bank project in Durango, Colorado, where an employee of the steel contractor fell about 25 feet. OSHA cited Fleming for inadequate safety instruction and failure to provide fall protection under construction standards. The…
Sierra Resources, Inc.
Nine serious lead violations affirmed
Sierra Resources removed and replaced bridge bearing assemblies in Blue Island, Illinois, using torch cutting on paint that testing showed contained 50 percent lead. OSHA sampling measured one employee's exposure at 119.7 micrograms per cubic meter, more than twice the permissible limit, and…
Venango Environmental, Inc.
Willful loader hazards affirmed after fatal overturn
Venango Environmental used a front-end loader with defective brakes and steering at a wastewater-treatment construction project. A foreman operating the loader died from injuries sustained when it overturned. Judge Michael H. Schoenfeld vacated the brake-performance item because the Secretary did…
Armstrong Steel Erectors, Inc.
Incomplete bridge fall protection supported repeated violation
Armstrong Steel Erectors was constructing a bridge when an ironworker died after falling about 90 feet. The company required 100 percent tie-off but provided only one lanyard per worker and left gaps in its lifeline system, so workers could not remain tied off while moving through several areas…
Honey Creek Contracting Co.
Review vacated after employer failed to brief
Honey Creek Contracting petitioned for Commission review of two administrative law judge decisions concerning excavation work in Homer City, Pennsylvania. After directing the cases for review, the Commission ordered Honey Creek to file a brief or a letter in lieu of a brief within 40 days. Honey…
Cumbie Concrete Company, Inc.
Carbon-monoxide and respirator violations yield $7,800
Cumbie Concrete employees cut holes in a library floor with a propane-powered saw inside a room sealed with plastic sheeting. Three employees developed carbon-monoxide poisoning and received hospital treatment. Judge Ken S. Welsch affirmed violations for lacking a propane safety data sheet and…
R.K. Construction & Development Co.
All five demolition-site citations affirmed with penalties reduced to $4,250
R.K. Construction & Development Co. is a small family-owned demolition and building restoration contractor in Savannah, Georgia. While the company was tearing down a three-story building, an OSHA compliance officer driving by saw employees on a scaffold about 25 feet up and stopped to inspect. OSHA…
Yates Grading & Heavy Equipment, Inc.
Trench safety violations yield $4,050
Yates Grading & Heavy Equipment installed sewer pipe in an excavation at a Georgia subdivision. OSHA cited the company for an inadequate safety program, insufficient excavation training, lack of cave-in protection, and a spoil pile placed at the trench edge. The judge found that general reminders…
Geo. Gradel Company
Training violation affirmed after a backhoe punctured a gas line
Geo. Gradel Company was an excavation contractor replacing a sewer line during a road-widening project in Ohio. A backhoe operator punctured an eight-inch high-pressure gas line where the sewer crossed it. The judge affirmed a serious training violation because Gradel had only told workers to be…
Windham Construction Corp.
Fall-protection and aerial-lift violations affirmed
Windham Construction Corporation was repairing structural steel beneath the Gowanus Expressway in New York. An OSHA officer saw an employee ride an aerial lift without tying off, climb onto the basket railing, and work between a shoring tower and a beam without fall protection. The judge credited…
C & D European Stucco and Stone, Inc.
Scaffold and inspection items vacated
C & D European Stucco and Stone, Inc. installed insulation and stucco from scaffolding on a six-story motel project in Georgia. OSHA alleged that employees worked on unguarded scaffold areas and that a competent person had not made regular site inspections. The judge credited the employer's…
Williams & Sons Erectors, LLC
Fall protection and training violations affirmed
Williams & Sons Erectors performed steel erection at a three-story construction site in New York. OSHA observed one ironworker welding on a second-level beam and another sitting on a roof-level column without fall protection. The judge credited the compliance officer's testimony that the employees…
Jerry Bennett Masonry Contractor, Inc.
Scaffold and chemical-safety violations affirmed
Three Jerry Bennett Masonry employees fell 30 to 35 feet when the outriggers supporting a suspended scaffold slipped from beneath their counterweights. The judge found that the person assigned to erect the scaffold lacked the training and knowledge required of a competent person. Required tiebacks…
Superior Custom Cabinet Company, Inc.
Cabinet-delivery fall citations affirmed
Superior Custom Cabinet Company delivered cabinets to houses under construction. A delivery worker carrying a cabinet upstairs stepped backward from an unguarded second-floor landing and died after the fall. The Commission found Superior's general instruction to avoid unsafe conditions too vague…
Johnson Building Corporation
General contractor inspection and training violations affirmed
Johnson Building Corporation was the general contractor for a retail construction project in Canton, Ohio. OSHA observed subcontractor employees working on trusses, scaffolds, and a platform without fall protection, as well as incomplete scaffolding, unsecured ladders, and work without head…
Daniel A. Mickelsen, an Individual, d/b/a M-L Masonry
Unguarded scaffold item affirmed
M-L Masonry removed scaffold guardrails while lowering a work platform about 16 feet above the ground. The judge found that employees on the platform were exposed to a fall hazard and that the guardrail requirement continued to apply during lowering and dismantling unless compliance became…
Bruschi Brothers, Inc.
Most trenching citations affirmed, one vacated in sewer-line excavation case
Bruschi Brothers, Inc., a general contractor, was installing a sewer line in a roughly 13-to-15-foot-deep trench in Chicopee, Massachusetts, when OSHA inspected and found four employees working in it. OSHA issued several serious citations for failing to train workers on trenching and confined-space…
Bear Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection fall-protection and training citations all affirmed, $12,000 penalty
Bear Erectors was a steel-erection subcontractor working on an addition to and demolition at an adult nursing facility in Rochester, New York. An OSHA officer driving past saw workers on the high steel without fall protection, videotaped the site, and inspected. OSHA issued a serious citation with…
Meridian Contractors, Inc.
Dismissals reversed and citation cases remanded
OSHA issued Meridian Contractors serious and willful construction citations with proposed penalties after two inspections. The ALJ dismissed both cases under Commission precedent treating the actions as moot because Meridian had stopped employing workers and was preparing to dissolve. After that…
Kenny Niles, d/b/a Kenny Niles Construction & Trucking Company
Business closure did not moot OSHA penalties
OSHA cited Kenny Niles for two willful and nine serious violations after a trench collapse injured an employee. The ALJ dismissed the case as moot after Niles closed his excavation and trucking businesses, sold equipment, and no longer employed anyone. Reconsidering its prior precedent, the…
Pitt-Des Moines, Inc.
Citation dismissal reversed during criminal investigation
Two workers were killed and five injured when a beam support failed during structural-steel construction and part of a building collapsed. OSHA issued two willful and one serious citation with $147,000 in proposed penalties. While the Justice Department considered criminal charges, the ALJ…
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co., Inc.
Off-site surveillance challenge rejected
An OSHA compliance officer observed and videotaped employees dismantling an exterior hoist without fall protection, first from a public plaza and then from a federal courthouse roof. Regional Scaffolding argued that the surveillance violated the Fourth Amendment and the OSH Act's credential and…
The Edward R. Hart Co.
Three serious scaffold and training violations affirmed
The Edward R. Hart Co. was an insulation subcontractor working at the Dover Chemical plant in Dover, Ohio. Responding to a complaint about workers on unguarded scaffolds, OSHA inspected and issued a three-item serious citation. OSHA charged that the company failed to train employees to recognize…
Anderson Excavating and Wrecking Company
Demolition fall violation found willful
Three employees manually demolished a bank vault about 35 feet above the ground without safety belts, nets, or other fall protection. The Commission found Anderson plainly indifferent because it provided only vague warnings not to fall, gave inadequate hazard training, and did not have…
Andrew Catapano Enterprises, Inc.
Separate trench citations largely upheld
OSHA issued nine sets of citations covering 98 alleged violations at separate water-main trench worksites along Eighth Avenue in New York City. The Commission held that the Secretary could inspect and cite the separate worksites independently because correcting a condition in one trench did not…
Citadel Corporation
Excavation and training citations vacated
Citadel Corporation was the general contractor for construction of two apartment buildings on the Georgia Tech campus. OSHA alleged that Citadel failed to train employees about excavation hazards, lacked a competent person to inspect excavations, and willfully failed to protect employees from…
National Engineering & Contracting Company
Willful crane-overturn items vacated, seat-belt and ladder items affirmed serious, $2,500
National Engineering & Contracting was the general contractor on an Ohio Department of Transportation soil-erosion project along a ravine in Lakewood, Ohio. A 28-ton Grove crane overturned into the ravine on August 19, 1994, injuring the operator, which prompted an OSHA inspection and two…
Humbert Sanitary Service, Inc.
Three trenching items affirmed serious, ladder item vacated, $2,700
Humbert Sanitary Service is a small Ohio construction contractor that installs and cleans septic tanks and lays sewer pipe. While Humbert was tapping a main sewer line on Cleveland Avenue in North Canton, an OSHA compliance officer responded to a complaint and found a laborer working in a…
Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc.
Four trench items vacated, cave-in protection violation affirmed for $3,750
Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc. sent an employee to weld a leaking gas line in an L-shaped excavation dug by an independent contractor in Columbus, Ohio. The Secretary withdrew one citation item before the hearing. Administrative Law Judge Michael H. Schoenfeld vacated the competent-person item because…
Valley Construction Company
$750 awarded for unjustified material-safety-data-sheet item
Valley Construction Company sought attorney, consultant, and other expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act after settling OSHA citations arising from an employee's fatal electrocution. The settlement withdrew three items, reclassified two, and reduced two penalties. The judge found Valley to…
S.A. Healy Co.
Double-jeopardy defense rejected and penalties remanded
S.A. Healy Co. was the tunneling contractor on a Milwaukee sewer project where a methane explosion killed three employees. OSHA issued 68 willful citation items under its instance-by-instance policy, and 49 of those items covered conduct for which the company was also criminally convicted and fined…
L & M Lignos Enterprises
Safety-training violation affirmed, penalty reduced to $750
L & M Lignos Enterprises was a bridge painting and sandblasting firm working beneath a bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. Employee Emmanuel Kleoudis fell from a suspended scaffold onto a barge and later died from his injuries. Although the company told employees to use safety belts and lifelines above 10…
E.L. Davis Contracting Co.
Excavation violations affirmed with $70,500 in penalties
E.L. Davis Contracting was repairing a sewer line when part of a 20- to 22-foot excavation containing two employees caved in. The Commission affirmed serious violations involving the company's safety program, excavation and confined-space training, and the absence of inspections by a competent…
Roberts Pipeline Construction, Inc.
$30,800 in penalties affirmed for eight violations
Roberts Pipeline challenged only the penalties assessed for eight serious violations involving training, head protection, compressed-gas storage, electrical grounding, trench access and inspection, and cave-in protection. The Commission held that the judge had considered the statutory factors of…
National Engineering and Contracting, Inc.
Bridge fall-protection violations affirmed
National was the general contractor and Tri-State its steel-erection subcontractor on rehabilitation of Cleveland's Main Avenue Bridge. A Tri-State foreman fell 80 feet and died when a deck pan dropped during a nonroutine operation; a second ironworker survived by grabbing a structural member. The…
E.R. Del Moral, Inc.
Scaffold and fall-hazard violations affirmed
E.R. Del Moral was performing construction work in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The judge found that employees worked on elevated scaffolds and platforms with missing end guardrails and inadequate intermediate rails, and that safety belts did not substitute for the guardrails required by the cited…
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.