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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Davis Brothers Construction Co.
Fall citation vacated for lack of exposure proof
OSHA compliance officers photographed an unidentified worker from about 300 feet away on the seventh-floor roof deck of an apartment project. Davis Brothers was the shell contractor, and the judge found that its contract gave it sufficient safety control over the decking subcontractor to make it a…
Lacerte Builders, Inc.
Controlling employer liable for subcontractor fall hazards
An OSHA compliance officer observed subcontractor employees using elevated aerial lifts and working on open third-floor balconies without proper fall protection. The judge found that Lacerte controlled the exterior work, supervised the subcontractors, could correct hazards, and had actual knowledge…
FABI Construction Company, Inc.
Construction violations affirmed after fatal slab collapse
A FABI employee was killed when a 10,000-pound concrete knockout slab collapsed during demolition at an Atlantic City construction project. After reviewing the full record, the Commission affirmed the judge's findings that FABI committed multiple serious construction violations, including failures…
Frank Lill & Son, Inc.
Fall-protection violation reduced from willful to serious
Frank Lill employees worked and walked on narrow generator catwalks 75 to 85 feet above lower levels without guardrails, nets, or attached personal fall protection. The judge found that employees could foreseeably enter the fall hazard zone and that management knew workers did not always tie off…
Summit Contractors, Inc.
Subcontractor fall-hazard citations vacated for lack of knowledge
OSHA cited Summit, the general contractor for a large apartment project, for several fall hazards affecting subcontractor employees. The judge held that Summit's broad contractual and practical authority made it a controlling employer under the multi-employer worksite doctrine. She vacated the…
AJP Construction, Inc.
Fall and scaffold violations resulted in $87,400 in penalties
AJP Construction performed concrete superstructure work at a residential construction site in Hoboken, New Jersey. OSHA conducted one inspection after a referral and another after falling form material struck an outrigger scaffold, causing it to collapse and killing an employee. The judge affirmed…
Yonkers Contracting Co., Inc.
Bridge fall item vacated for lack of employer knowledge
Yonkers employees worked over the East River during rehabilitation of the Manhattan Bridge, but no lifesaving skiff was immediately available. The judge affirmed that item because the skiff requirement applied even where bridge workers otherwise had fall protection. A separate fall-protection item…
Coastal Bridge Company, L.L.C.
Bridge-edge fall violation affirmed with reduced penalty
Coastal Bridge employees applied a finish coating while leaning over a 32-inch concrete bridge barrier above an active interstate highway. The fall distance was more than 24 feet, and the company used no safety net or personal fall arrest system. The judge applied the general unprotected-edge…
Hensel Phelps Construction Co., and its successors
Roof-edge citation vacated for lack of employee exposure
An OSHA compliance officer photographed workers on the second floor of a hotel structure where only one top rail protected an edge nearly 10 feet above the ground. OSHA attributed one photographed worker to Hensel Phelps because the worker appeared to be a woman and Hensel Phelps had one female…
C. E. Wylie Construction Co., and its successors
Roof-edge violation reduced to de minimis
A Wylie Construction employee installed a safety cable on a hangar roof without conventional fall protection. He briefly approached and leaned over a two-foot parapet above a 15-foot drop to answer a question. The judge found technical noncompliance because the employee was exposed without a…
Ranch Masonry, Inc.
Scaffold-gap and balcony fall violations resulted in $9,000 in penalties
Ranch Masonry employees applied stucco from a fifth-level scaffold about 33 feet above the ground. An employee fell between the scaffold and building and died. The judge found that the scaffold platform was more than the permitted 18 inches from the wall, employees routinely crossed a roughly…
Associated Construction
Commission-indexed file contains ALJ fall-protection ruling
The OSHRC index identifies this as a Commission decision dated December 14, 2001, but the official PDF currently serves an Administrative Law Judge decision dated January 31, 2002. In the served decision, two Associated Construction employees erected prefabricated walls within inches of an…
MJP Construction Co., Inc.
High-rise fall violations affirmed and willful penalties increased
MJP was the formwork subcontractor on a high-rise concrete project where employees repeatedly worked at open floor edges and hoist areas without guardrails or personal fall-arrest systems. The Commission affirmed the violations, finding that videotape and testimony showed exposure and that MJP did…
Brand Scaffold Rental and Erection, Inc.
Scaffold-access allegations vacated
OSHA observed Brand employees climbing scaffold members while erecting a scaffold at a Boston construction site. The judge vacated the primary access allegation because the cited provision did not apply to employees erecting or dismantling supported scaffolds. The alternative provision did apply…
Bigge Crane and Rigging Company, and its successors
Roof-edge fall protection violation affirmed
Bigge Crane and Rigging performed construction work at Travis Air Force Base in California. An OSHA compliance officer observed a Bigge foreman standing near the unprotected edge of a 25-foot-high commissary roof without fall protection. The judge credited the compliance officer's account over the…
BSE Industrial Contractors, Inc.
Fall-protection citation vacated for lack of knowledge, but inadequate fall training affirmed
BSE Industrial Contractors is a steel erection contractor. OSHA investigated after an ironworker on a BSE crew fell 40 feet and died while climbing a rain-slicked noise baffle inside a smoke stack at a USX steel plant in Fairfield, Alabama. OSHA issued three items: working on an elevated surface…
Cody-Zeigler, Inc.
Consensual inspections and mixed citation rulings affirmed
Cody-Zeigler faced citations arising from five programmed inspections at construction projects in Ohio. Although company representatives consented when OSHA arrived, the contractor later argued that the frequency of inspections showed a lack of administrative probable cause. The Commission held…
Saugus Construction Corporation
Fall-protection citation vacated because OSHA never proved the beam was too low to guard the edge
Saugus Construction Corp. is a steel erection contractor that was working on the Central Artery Tunnel Project in Boston. During a February 2000 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer saw a Saugus welder leaning across a horizontal steel beam with his head over an excavation roughly 18 to 20 feet…
Rapid Masonry Company, and its successors
Scaffold access and fall-protection violations affirmed, penalties reduced to $600
Rapid Masonry employees were cutting and laying masonry block from scaffolding at a Lewisville, Texas, construction site. An OSHA officer saw one employee climb scaffold cross braces instead of using a ladder about 50 feet away and saw another employee working beside an open scaffold edge about 18…
Brand Scaffold Builders, Inc.
Fall-protection citation vacated on employee-misconduct defense
Brand Scaffold Builders was erecting and modifying scaffolding at an International Paper mill in Mobile, Alabama. Two employees crossed loose boards spanning between a tank and a building about 54 feet above the ground without guardrails or personal fall protection. The judge found that Brand…
Nu-Waay Enterprises, Inc.
Safety-program, first-aid, and fall-protection citations affirmed after a 24-foot fall
Nu-Waay Enterprises is a small construction company that built an elevated walkway and observation platform at a national wildlife refuge in Mississippi. While a crew was removing the formwork under the finished platform, a stuck I-beam broke loose, catapulting a worker who fell about 24 feet and…
H. Carr & Sons Inc.
Contractor is liable for repeated fall hazard under economic-realities test
H. Carr & Sons worked on a shopping mall and movie theater project in Providence, Rhode Island. OSHA observed a worker on a mezzanine about 14 feet above a concrete floor where a sagging wire rope did not provide adequate fall protection. Although another company issued the worker's paycheck…
Raytheon Constructors, Inc., and its successors
Medical, eye-protection, electrical, and fall items are vacated
Raytheon was building a chemical-weapons disposal incinerator at the Umatilla Army Chemical Depot in Oregon. After an unknown chemical exposure sickened workers, OSHA cited the company for inadequate access to medical advice, but the judge found that qualified emergency medical technicians were…
McConnell Smith Guam, Inc., and its successors
Fall-protection and stair violations affirmed
McConnell Smith Guam erected precast concrete panels on a multistory building in Guam. OSHA observed the lead worker and another employee near the sixth-floor edge, about 62 feet above the ground, wearing harnesses but not tied to the available static line. The judge rejected the…
N & N Contractors, Inc.
Fall-protection violation affirmed, training item vacated
N & N Contractors erected precast exterior panels on a twelve-story building in Washington, D.C. An employee crossed beneath a horizontal lifeline without tying off, stumbled near an unprotected edge, and fell more than 115 feet to his death. The Commission held that the fall-protection standard…
Superior Rigging & Erecting Co.
Commission affirms lifeline item and remands competing fall-protection charges
Superior Rigging was installing elevator sill angles in a 24-story office building in Montgomery, Alabama when a foreman fell down an elevator shaft. The Commission held that installing the nonstructural sill angles was not steel erection work covered by OSHA's temporary stay of the Subpart M…
Montana Power Company
Roof-edge violation affirmed with penalty reduced to $1,000
Montana Power was upgrading electrical service at a Missoula motel when an employee worked on the roof about 22 feet above the ground without a lanyard, guardrail, or safety net. The company argued that working from its aerial-lift basket was infeasible because the motel's weather heads faced…
Otis Elevator, Inc.
Elevator-platform fall violation reduced from repeated to serious
Four Otis Elevator employees, including the Montana territory manager, rode an unguarded elevator platform at a hotel project without tying off, exposing them to a fall of as much as 112 feet. Otis had detailed fall-protection rules, training, audits, and progressive discipline, but all four…
30 River Court East Construction Corp.
Fall citation vacated because OSHA did not identify the worker's employer
OSHA observed a worker near the open perimeter of the 27th floor of a Jersey City high-rise without fall protection and cited the general contractor, 30 River Court East Construction. The compliance officer believed the worker was installing winter-protection plastic, work performed by the…
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…
Baker Drywall Company, Inc.
Aerial-lift and edge fall violations affirmed
Baker Drywall employees relocated metal studs on simulated smokestacks at a movie theater construction site. One worked from an aerial-lift basket without tying off and at one point straddled its top rail, while another stood on a structural ring about 16 feet above a steel roof without fall…
The Pike Company, Inc.
Edge, scaffold, and ground-fault items affirmed
At a prison construction project, Pike employees worked near a 13-foot unguarded edge, and another employee poured concrete from an unguarded outrigger scaffold about 20 feet high without a proper access ladder. Judge Ann Z. Cook rejected infeasibility because the edge work did not require removal…
J.A.M. Builders, Inc.
Willful electrical violation affirmed after fatal power-line contact
J.A.M. Builders was a construction subcontractor placing reinforcing steel for a concrete floor in Miami Beach, Florida. Employees handled rebar up to 20 feet long on a 17-foot-wide deck beneath energized, uninsulated 7,620-volt power lines. One employee died when the rebar he was holding contacted…
Metro Steel Construction Co.
Two fall-protection items vacated for insufficient proof
Metro Steel erected structural steel for a shopping mall in Westbury, New York. OSHA alleged two instances in which employees walked exterior beams about 40 feet above the ground without fall protection. For the first item, the Commission found critical ambiguity because Metro's witnesses testified…
Grayhawk of America, Inc.
Four construction safety violations affirmed after employer failed to appear
OSHA cited Grayhawk of America for four serious construction safety violations involving head protection, eye and face protection, unprotected deck edges, and unguarded floor openings. The employer received notice of the hearing but did not appear or request a postponement. The compliance officer…
James Eddy, d/b/a Eddy Roofing, Inc.
Roofing safety violations affirmed and penalties reduced for size
OSHA inspected Eddy Roofing after a fatal fall from a roofing worksite about 40 feet above the ground. The company withdrew its contest to violations involving its safety program, fall-hazard training, roof edges, skylights, guardrails, warning lines, access, and hazard communication. Judge…
T.L.T. Construction Co., Inc.
Open-edge and willful scaffold violations affirmed
T.L.T. Construction was the general contractor on a school gymnasium project where employees worked near an unguarded floor edge and on tall scaffolds. Judge Richard DeBenedetto found that the open-sided floor exposed employees to falls of six to nine feet. He also found that employees climbed…
Plumb Square & Lovell, and its successors
Roof-edge violation affirmed but electrical and skylight items vacated
Plumb Square & Lovell employees framed a roof about 15 feet above the ground without fall protection. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz affirmed that serious violation even though the contractor mistakenly believed California's 15-foot rule governed the federal worksite. He reduced the penalty to $150…
JHL Constructors, Inc.
Subcontractor fall-protection citation vacated
JHL Constructors was the general contractor for construction of a middle school. OSHA cited JHL after a masonry subcontractor employee worked near an unprotected edge about 14 feet above the ground without fall protection. The Secretary proved that the standard applied, its terms were not met, and…
King Concrete Construction Company, Inc.
Willful fall violations and settlement yield $18,200
King Concrete performed concrete work on a barracks project at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The company admitted that employees working on and near leading edges lacked required fall protection, but disputed OSHA's willful classification and proposed $49,000 penalty. The judge found the violations…
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…
S & F Concrete Contractors, Inc.
Fall citation affirmed with a reduced penalty
S & F Concrete Contractors, Inc. performed concrete formwork for a hotel parking garage in the Boston area. OSHA cited the company for failing to protect employees working on concrete beams near open sides and ends. The judge found that one open side lacked required midrail protection and that one…
Macedos Construction Company, Inc.
Serious construction citation resolved by approved settlement
Macedos Construction was inspected at a construction site in Dover, New Jersey in October 1996. OSHA issued a serious citation alleging violations of five construction standards covering fall protection, concrete and masonry work, stairways, and ladders. Macedos contested the citation, and the case…
Milo Construction Corporation
Nine construction violations affirmed
Milo Construction Corporation was the prime contractor for construction at Sirena Plaza in Agana, Guam. After Milo failed to comply with discovery orders, the cited violations, their classifications, and Milo's knowledge were deemed admitted. The judge held Milo responsible for hazards involving…
Glenco Construction Services, Inc.
Steel erector held to general fall-protection rules, three items affirmed
Glenco Construction Services, Inc. was a steel-erection subcontractor at a Bloomsburg University library project in Pennsylvania. During a November 1996 inspection, OSHA found that cables at the tops of access ladders forced workers to step over them, that a stairwell opening had slack guard cables…
A.D. Willis Company, Inc.
Roofing fall-protection citation vacated for failure of proof
A.D. Willis Company, Inc. was doing roofing work on an HEB store in Midland, Texas. An OSHA compliance officer arriving around 9:15 a.m. saw and videotaped two Willis employees working at the edge of the roughly 30-foot-high roof with no visible fall protection. He did not go onto the roof until…
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…
P. S. Bruckel, Inc.
Bridge-safety citations affirmed with $8,750 in penalties
P. S. Bruckel was an industrial-painting subcontractor on a lift-bridge rehabilitation project. A supervisor and a laborer worked over a canal and around an open counterweight pit while removing scaffold equipment, and the supervisor fell into the pit and died. OSHA cited the company for missing or…
Continental Roof Systems, Inc.
Mootness dismissal reversed and case remanded
OSHA cited Continental Roof Systems for sixteen alleged roofing, scaffold, fall-protection, equipment, training, and recordkeeping violations, with $139,600 in proposed penalties. The ALJ dismissed the case as moot after Continental went out of business and had no employees. The Commission had…
Peterson Construction Co.
Unsecured decking and floor-hole items affirmed
A carpenter loosened a sheet of second-floor plywood decking to remove column formwork, leaving an opening and an unstable walking surface 21 feet above the lower level. When he stepped on the loose sheet, it lifted and he fell through the opening onto reinforcing steel, causing serious injuries…
James Construction
Controlling employer liable for subcontractor hazards
James Construction supervised a siding subcontractor and controlled its work approval and payment. The judge held that James could not ignore repeated safety violations merely because stronger enforcement might delay the job or reduce profits. Serious items involving eye protection, unguarded…
Midwest Piping & Controls, Inc.
Fall-protection item affirmed serious $400, load-limit posting item vacated
Midwest Piping & Controls is a small family-owned pipe-fitting company that fabricates and installs piping mainly for a nearby Mead Paper Corporation mill. Its shop sits inside Mead's fenced perimeter, on land Midwest owns under a long- term lease. During a complaint inspection aimed at Mead and…
Davy Songer, Inc.
The top of a shipping crate workers stood on to rig out machinery was a "walking/working surface" requiring fall protection
Davy Songer, Inc. was a construction contractor with about 290 employees at a worksite in Canton, Ohio. OSHA issued a six-item serious citation, and the company and the Secretary settled all but one item before the hearing. The remaining item (item 4) was decided on the written record without a…
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.