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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Complete General Construction Co.
Spoil-pile citation stands, but cave-in item fails under the Secretary's admission
Complete General Construction was relocating water lines while widening a state highway in Waverly, Ohio. OSHA cited the company because a two-foot-high spoil pile sat directly at the edge of an excavation where two employees were working nearby. The judge held that § 1926.651(j)(2) requires spoil…
D.T. Construction Company, Inc.
Three willful trench violations affirmed, most other items upheld, $119,750 penalty
D.T. Construction is a Pennsylvania contractor that installs underground water and sewer lines. After OSHA inspected several of its dig sites in 1998, the agency issued three citations covering willful, serious, and other-than-serious violations. The heart of the case was three willful cave-in…
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company
Trench inspection and cave-in protection violations affirmed
Southwestern Bell Telephone had two technicians repairing telephone lines in an unshored trench about six feet deep with nearly vertical sides in Alton, Texas, in 1998. An OSHA compliance officer driving by stopped and inspected. The soil was Type B, which requires sloping or another protective…
Joseph J. Magnolia, Inc.
Willful trench citation vacated, backhoe-bucket general duty violation affirmed
Joseph J. Magnolia, Inc. is a Washington, D.C. area utility contractor that was excavating and installing sewer lines during a hospital expansion. After an OSHA inspection it was cited for one willful and two serious violations. Administrative Law Judge Michael H. Schoenfeld reached a split result…
P.A. Landers, Inc.
Settlement reduces willful trench penalty to $40,000
P.A. Landers was installing sewer lines at a Massachusetts condominium development when an unprotected trench collapsed and buried an employee up to his neck, causing multiple serious injuries. The ALJ found a willful trench-protection violation because the site supervisor knew the trench exceeded…
Cranberry Realty/Parsippany Office Plaza
Trench items affirmed with penalties reduced to $2,000
Cranberry Realty's owner acted as his own general contractor and hired workers to dig a sewer-connection trench on company property. OSHA found the trench was more than five feet deep in soil requiring cave-in protection, lacked that protection, and had not been inspected by a competent person. The…
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…
Dakota Underground, Inc.
Water-accumulation item remanded after court ruling
Dakota Underground performed excavation work in Fargo, North Dakota. The administrative law judge had affirmed willful violations involving trench egress, accumulated water, and cave-in protection, while vacating a competent-person inspection item. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the Commission's final…
Moniger Excavating, Inc.
Trench protection and ladder items vacated for lack of employee exposure
OSHA cited Moniger Excavating after finding a narrow trench about 4.5 to 5.5 feet deep with vertical walls, no protective system, and no nearby ladder. No employee was inside the trench during the inspection, and the company explained that its force-main sewer pipe was assembled and measured from…
Pickus Construction and Equipment Company, Inc.
Trench citation affirmed after repeated foreman warnings
OSHA observed a Pickus Construction employee grading inside an unprotected trench that was six feet deep in Type B soil. Chief Judge Irving Sommer credited the compliance officer's measurements over conflicting company testimony and found the cave-in-protection rule violated. Pickus argued…
Rocky Mountain Materials & Asphalt
Trench items affirmed by default for $4,325
Rocky Mountain Materials & Asphalt said during a pretrial conference that it intended to defend two excavation citations but did not appear at the scheduled E-Z Trial hearing. OSHA presented testimony and video showing a nearly ten-foot-deep excavation in Type C soil with spoil material stored…
Aviation Constructors, Inc.
Willful excavation violation affirmed but penalty reduced
Aviation Constructors hired a subcontractor to install a shotcrete shoring system for a baggage-tunnel excavation at Atlanta's airport. The company knew a registered professional engineer had not approved the design, yet it allowed subcontractor employees to work for ten days in the excavation…
Black Construction Corporation
Unprotected manhole trench affirmed for $500
Black Construction excavated a trench near Guam International Airport to replace a manhole and redirect a sewage pipe. An employee worked in a section measured at six and one-half feet deep without sloping, shoring, or another cave-in protective system. Judge Nancy J. Spies rejected the Secretary's…
Black Micro Corporation
Saipan airport excavation required cave-in protection
Black Micro excavated a 54-foot-long pit for taxiway construction at Saipan International Airport. Six employees worked in vertical walls five and one-half to six feet deep without sloping, shoring, or another protective system. Judge Nancy J. Spies excluded OSHA's soil sample because it was…
D.W.K. Contractors, Inc.
Trench-depth item vacated but spoil-pile violation affirmed
D.W.K. dug a trench to install a rainwater drain and placed excavated soil directly at both edges. OSHA measured one wall at eight and one-half feet by measuring from the top of the spoil pile, but Judge Covette Rooney held that trench depth must be measured from original ground level and OSHA had…
Drum Construction Co., Inc.
Employees outside trench box exposed to cave-in hazard
OSHA observed two Drum Construction employees working outside a trench box near a manhole in Type B soil. One area was about ten feet deep, another had been about eight feet deep during backfilling, and the trench walls were essentially vertical; the access ladder was also outside the protected…
Lanzo Construction Co., Inc.
Ladder and cave-in items affirmed, repeat classification rejected
Lanzo employees worked in an unprotected 12-foot excavation and used a ladder perched on unstable, sloping soil. The ladder was not missing a rung as first alleged, but its extension-ladder design left nonuniform spacing that created a misstep hazard. Judge Ken S. Welsch affirmed the two ladder…
The Ryan Company, Inc.
Excavation and sling citations vacated
The Ryan Company installed utility lines in an excavation at the Philadelphia Naval Base. OSHA alleged that employees worked in an excavation more than five feet deep without a protective system. Chief Judge Irving Sommer found no proof that employees entered the 5-foot-2-inch area and found the…
Kenny Niles Construction Company
Trench citations reinstated after business closure
Kenny Niles Construction Company was investigated after a trench cave-in resulted in an employee's death. OSHA issued three willful citation items involving trenching hazards, but the sole proprietor had closed his businesses and no longer had employees before the citation was issued. An…
Norm's Utility Contractors, and its successors
Repeat trench-protection and access violations affirmed
Norm's Utility Contractors used trench boxes in a wet excavation about ten feet deep, but several feet of nearly vertical, sloughing soil remained above the boxes. Employees worked from the top of a box below the trench edge and lacked a safe ladder or ramp after earlier ramp access was removed…
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…
Bovis Construction Corporation
Excavation citations vacated for lack of knowledge
A Bovis Construction subcontractor allowed employees into a deep excavation without a nearby safe exit, adequate water precautions, or cave-in protection. As general contractor, Bovis had enough supervisory authority to require subcontractor compliance, but its liability still depended on actual or…
Scafar Contracting, Inc.
Two trench violations affirmed and three vacated
Scafar Contracting replaced an underground sewer line through a series of excavations in Newark, New Jersey. Judge Michael H. Schoenfeld found that employees building a manhole worked beside an inadequately protected excavation wall and that another trench used timber shoring that did not meet the…
Bilran Excavating Company
Inadequately sloped trench violation affirmed
Bilran Excavating installed a water line in a trench about 8.5 feet deep with no shoring and walls sloped at 58 degrees. Its competent persons had not performed the required visual and manual soil analysis before the foreman entered the trench. Judge Covette Rooney held that without a valid soil…
The Fishel Company
Willful trench citations vacated for employee misconduct
A Fishel Company crew leader entered an unshored Type C trench more than five feet deep while a spoil pile and backhoe were close to the edge. As crew leader and competent person, his knowledge of the conditions was imputable to Fishel. Judge Ken S. Welsch nevertheless found unpreventable employee…
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…
Kenko, Inc.
Two trench hazards affirmed and egress item vacated
Kenko employees were laying and connecting pipe in a trench more than 11 feet deep. OSHA cited the company for inadequate egress, loose rock or soil on the excavation face, and insufficient cave-in protection. The judge vacated the egress item because the backfill provided a safe way out and the…
Rausch Construction Company
Both excavation citations affirmed for a $5,100 penalty
Rausch Construction Company was doing sewer line connection work at an excavation site in Chicago. An OSHA compliance officer driving by in May 1997 stopped and measured the trench, finding it about 6.5 feet deep in Type C soil with vertical walls that should have been sloped to 34 degrees, and a…
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…
Condor Construction Company
Willful/repeat trenching citation and hard-hat citation affirmed for $23,000
Condor Construction was building a church and day-care facility in New Rochelle, New York. OSHA had already cited and settled with the company twice at the same site for leaving employees in an unprotected excavation. On a third inspection in June 1996, the compliance officer found employees again…
Wye Electric, Inc.
Four excavation citations affirmed after employee-misconduct defense fails, $4,350
Wye Electric installs underground power and communication systems. On a construction project in Jackson, Mississippi, its crew dug a roughly 7-foot pit in unstable Type C soil at a former gas station site to set a precast manhole. OSHA cited four excavation violations: no fall barriers at the pit…
Anderson Columbia Co., Inc.
General contractor liable for subcontractor trench hazards
Anderson Columbia Co., Inc. was the general contractor on a Florida storm-drain project where a subcontractor performed the excavation work. OSHA found spoil and heavy equipment too close to the trench edge, no cave-in protection in an 18-foot-deep trench, inadequate access for workers to leave the…
Stone-Circle Underground, Inc.
Trackhoe bucket violation affirmed, spoil-pile and cave-in items vacated
Stone-Circle Underground builds underground drainage fields in the Fort Lauderdale area. During an August 1997 inspection of a French drain job in a bank parking lot, OSHA issued three excavation citations: employees working under a trackhoe bucket, a spoil pile stacked at the trench edge, and a…
Brandenburg Industrial Services Company
Four demolition safety violations affirmed
Brandenburg Industrial Services Company performed demolition work at the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. OSHA cited an inadequately protected eight-foot excavation, an uncovered floor opening, a worn shackle, and excessively worn chain links on magnet excavators. The judge found…
Sentrale Contracting Corp.
Repeat trench cave-in and spoil-pile violations affirmed
Sentrale Contracting was doing utility excavation at a conference center site in Armonk, New York. During a September 1996 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer found an employee working in a trench area that measured about 6.5 feet deep, with walls sloped far steeper than the 45 degrees allowed…
A & K Construction Co., Inc.
Unprotected trench draws an affirmed serious cave-in citation
A & K Construction Co., Inc. was installing a water system in Island Lake, Illinois. On May 27, 1997, an OSHA compliance officer saw an A & K employee working as the bottom man in an open trench about 7.5 feet deep with no sloping, shoring, or trench box. OSHA cited a serious violation of the…
Trine Construction Corp.
Repeat unprotected-excavation citation affirmed at a water main project
Trine Construction Corp. was the contractor on a 3-mile water main project for the City of Wheeling, Illinois. During a January 1997 inspection, an OSHA compliance officer found an excavation 8 to 9 feet deep with essentially vertical walls and no cave-in protection. Witnesses said a Trine employee…
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…
Pentecost Contracting Corp.
EAJA fee application denied
Pentecost admitted willful excavation violations but successfully reduced proposed penalties from $105,000 to $42,000 by grouping related items at each trench. It then sought attorney's fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The Commission held that success on a significant penalty issue can…
V & W Construction & Service Co.
Trench violation affirmed with reduced penalty
V & W Construction was replacing an underground oil-water separator at a National Guard base. After the company removed the trench shoring, employees entered the nine-foot-deep excavation even though soil was sloughing from the walls and no protective system remained. The judge rejected claims that…
N. M. Savko & Sons, Inc.
Confined-space item affirmed, trench items vacated
N. M. Savko & Sons installed sewer pipe and required an employee to enter a manhole to set up a laser. The judge found the sewer was a confined space and that the employee had not been instructed about its hazards, precautions, or emergency equipment. That serious training violation was affirmed…
A.M.C.C. Corporation, Inc.
Willful excavation violation affirmed
A.M.C.C. employees worked in a detention-tank excavation with an inadequately sloped wall and a large spoil pile at the edge. Project representatives repeatedly warned the superintendent, issued a stop-work order, and contacted company management, but employees resumed work before adequate…
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…
C.E.M. Plumbing, Inc.
Trench violation affirmed as serious, not willful
C.E.M. employees worked for 15 to 20 minutes in a six-foot-deep trench with vertical walls and no protective system. The company president said shoring costs would have affected the bid, but he also believed clay soil and tree roots made the trench safe. The Commission found that OSHA did not prove…
Globe Contractors, Inc.
Power-line and trench items affirmed, inspection item vacated
OSHA inspected Globe's underground-construction site on a public road and observed a backhoe operating within ten feet of an overhead wire and an employee standing on a ladder and later a water main inside an unprotected trench. The judge rejected Globe's warrant and inspection-conduct objections…
Kirila Contractors, Inc.
Fifth excavation offense affirmed as willful
Kirila excavated beside a highway to push a gas line and allowed its president and another employee to work in an area at least five feet deep without sloping or another protective system. The judge rejected the claim that only a small sump hole exceeded five feet and found that the cited wall was…
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…
P. Gioioso & Sons, Inc.
Trench safety violations affirmed
P. Gioioso & Sons was installing water lines in Winthrop, Massachusetts, when OSHA inspectors saw a foreman and another employee inside an unprotected trench. A suspended pipe passed over the employees, and their access ladder extended only 12 inches above street level. The judge affirmed serious…
Louis Sinisgalli, d/b/a Metro Wrecking of Rochester, Inc., et al.
Willful cave-in violation affirmed
Workers were sent to remove pumps from a deep, water-filled excavation at a trailer park owned through one of Louis Sinisgalli's corporations. After the workers reported crumbling walls and unsafe conditions, Sinisgalli directed them to return and complete the work before he would pay them. A…
Linde Enterprises, Inc.
Trenching cave-in items affirmed serious, seat-belt item vacated, $1,800
Linde Enterprises is a Pennsylvania excavating contractor that was installing utility lines in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Acting on an anonymous complaint, an OSHA compliance officer inspected the trench worksite and issued one serious citation with four items. Linde first argued the inspection was…
ICG Electric, Inc.
Trench inspection and cave-in protection violations affirmed, one serious and one repeat, $12,000
ICG Electric installs underground lines and was working two excavations at an intersection in Aurora, Colorado. Acting on a complaint from the Aurora Fire Department, an OSHA compliance officer inspected the site and found employees in unshored trenches roughly five and a half to six feet deep, in…
R & R Pipeline, Inc.
Trench spoil-pile and repeat cave-in items affirmed, inspection item vacated, penalties cut
R & R Pipeline is a Colorado utilities contractor. During a December 1994 inspection of a trenching job in Littleton, an OSHA compliance officer found a worker in a trench about 10 to 11 feet deep with no shoring in place, a spoil pile of excavated dirt piled less than two feet from the trench…
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…
P. A. Landers, Incorporated
Four excavation violations affirmed for $10,300, willful charge reduced to serious
P. A. Landers, Incorporated was constructing a manhole in an excavation about 8.5 feet deep beside a roadway carrying substantial traffic. Three employees worked without hard hats, bricks and concrete blocks were stored within two feet of the edge, and the access ladder extended only one foot above…
LaForge & Budd Construction Co., Inc.
Two items affirmed by stipulation after remand
OSHA cited LaForge & Budd Construction Co., Inc. after inspecting an Oklahoma construction project. The Commission reversed an earlier ruling that had suppressed the inspection evidence and remanded the case for a hearing on the merits. The parties then stipulated that a nylon-sling item would be…
DiGioia Brothers Excavating, Inc.
Trench protection and inspection violations affirmed
DiGioia Brothers Excavating installed residential water and sewer lines in an excavation more than eight feet deep. The Commission found that most contemporaneous soil tests showed compressive strength below the threshold for Type A soil, while tests performed months later at nearby locations did…
Kunz Construction Co., Inc.
Four serious excavation-safety violations affirmed
Kunz Construction Co., Inc. was inspected while working near the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, Texas. OSHA found a foreman without a hard hat, an access ladder that did not extend three feet above the excavation, an unguarded plank used as a crossing, and employees in an excavation that was neither…
C. Abbonizio Contractors, Inc.
Excavation contractor held responsible for trench created by its workers
C. Abbonizio Contractors supplied two workers and a backhoe to dig an improperly sloped and unshored trench at a New Jersey aquarium project. The company argued that the construction manager employed or controlled the workers for that task. The Commission held that Abbonizio remained the employer…
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.