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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Riverdale Mills Corporation
Glove-selection and machine-guarding violations affirmed after roller injury
Riverdale Mills manufactured wire mesh at its Northbridge, Massachusetts, plant. An operator's glove or shirt sleeve caught on a sharp wire panel while he fed it into a flattening machine, pulling his hand into the rollers and breaking three fingers. The judge found the company's hand-protection…
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…
North West Handling Systems, Inc., and its successors
Scissor-lift and fall-training violations affirmed, willful items reduced to serious
North West Handling Systems used a scissor lift while relocating warehouse pallet racks in Sandpoint, Idaho. A company installer removed part of the lift's guardrail, provided little safety training to two temporary workers, and used a forklift to push up the lift platform after it stopped rising…
Pete Miller, Inc.
Safety monitor had to be on the same roof as the monitored worker
Pete Miller was a roofing subcontractor on a hospital addition in Marysville, Ohio. An employee on a small lower roof handled metal curbs weighing about 150 pounds and pushed them over an unguarded edge to the ground 15 feet below. The company used a foreman on an upper roof as the employee's…
James R. Howell & Co., d/b/a Howell Construction
Commission holds contractor to the asbestos presumption despite an owner's verbal assurance
Howell Construction was the general contractor for a remodeling project in a pre-1980 pipe-fitters hall in Denver. The building owner verbally told Howell that pipe insulation had been tested and contained no asbestos, but no supporting report was produced before a subcontractor removed presumed…
G.S. Garcia Construction, Inc.
Late contest is dismissed after proof of Federal Express delivery
G.S. Garcia Construction was a subcontractor at a Houston construction project when OSHA inspected and later issued a repeat citation. Federal Express records showed that the citation was delivered to the company's office on March 16, 2000, making April 6 the final day to contest it. The company…
Beaver Plant Operations, Inc.
Citation vacated on remand for lack of fair notice
The First Circuit reversed the Commission's earlier decision affirming a citation against Beaver Plant Operations because the company lacked adequate notice of the Commission's interpretation of the cited standard. Although proof that Beaver actually knew of a hazardous condition could have…
Odyssey Capital Group III, L.P., d/b/a Cascades Apartments
Commission rejects reliance on limited asbestos studies
Odyssey owned and operated a nine-building apartment complex in Pittsburgh where maintenance employees scraped and repainted pre-1981 ceiling material. The company took none of the asbestos precautions required by OSHA because two earlier environmental studies had reported less than one percent…
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…
Sun Roofing, and its successors
Six-month delay after a penalty demand defeats request to excuse late contest
Sun Roofing operated a roofing business in Appleton, Wisconsin, and OSHA cited it for a serious residential fall-protection violation. The company received the citation on August 31, 1999, which made September 22 the deadline to contest it. Sun Roofing did not submit a notice of contest until May…
Coastal Horizontal, Inc., d/b/a Coastal Power, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed, $8,900 citation stands as a final order
Coastal Horizontal, a Florida excavation contractor doing business as Coastal Power, was inspected by OSHA after a March 2000 dig in Navarre, Florida. OSHA issued a five-item serious citation with an $8,900 penalty and mailed it certified on April 28, 2000. Coastal received it on May 1, which gave…
Copperhead Chemical Company
Commission remands process-safety case for settlement review
Copperhead Chemical Company faced process-safety-management citation items involving safety information for an explosive chemical product and changes to its mixing process. An earlier ALJ order had vacated three items concerning the initial compilation of process safety information because the work…
Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distribution Co., Inc.
Wheel-chock violation stands, but training and recordkeeping items fail
Piggly Wiggly operated a large grocery distribution warehouse where a forklift operator was killed when a hostler moved a trailer away from the dock while the employee was still inside. OSHA's inspection produced serious, willful, and recordkeeping citation items. The judge affirmed the serious…
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…
Interstate Brands, Inc.
Commission remands motion challenging an order that vacated the contest
The Chief Administrative Law Judge granted the Secretary's motion to vacate Interstate Brands' notice of contest. Interstate Brands then moved under Commission Rule 90(b)(3) to vacate that decision, arguing in part that the order may have resulted from oversight or inadvertence. The Commission…
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…
G. Porter and Company
Commission approves a settlement and sets aside the ALJ scaffold decision to the extent inconsistent
G. Porter and Company is a masonry subcontractor. OSHA inspected a Chicago-area construction site in February 1999 and cited Porter for a serious scaffolding violation: employees were working on a scaffold that lacked the required guardrails, exposing them to falls of roughly 18 to 20 feet. After…
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…
Morse Diesel International, Inc.
All citations vacated because the contractor lacked knowledge of the hazards
Morse Diesel International (MDI) was the general contractor on the "Wedge One" phase of the Pentagon Renovation Program in Arlington, Virginia. During a September 1999 inspection, OSHA cited MDI for two serious guardrail items (a wire-rope guardrail around a second-floor opening had sagged below…
A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co.
Asbestos, HazCom, and combustible-dust electrical violations largely affirmed, many as willful
A.E. Staley Manufacturing runs a large grain wet-milling plant in Decatur, Illinois. A lengthy OSHA inspection begun in July 1990 produced two sets of citations, consolidated here as Docket Nos. 91-0637 and 91-0638. In the first docket, the Commission affirmed as willful the asbestos items for…
Walker Crane & Rigging Corporation
Crane-near-power-line citation affirmed, $3,500 penalty
Walker Crane & Rigging is a small Connecticut crane company. In October 1999 its operator was using a crane to set the sections of a modular house in Higganum, Connecticut, working on a narrow street with overhead power lines along the far side. While moving the fourth house section, the crane's…
New York State Electric & Gas Corp.
PPE citations vacated because employer knowledge was not proved
New York State Electric & Gas Corporation sent a two-person crew to install residential gas service in Binghamton, New York. An OSHA compliance officer saw one crew member operating a jackhammer without eye protection and later determined that he also lacked protective footwear, although both forms…
Gulf Hauling & Construction, Inc.
PPE-training and eyewash items affirmed, most items vacated after a fatal chemical-burn accident
Gulf Hauling & Construction is a family-owned Mobile, Alabama company that hauls paper-processing waste for the International Paper plant. An employee was found on the concrete waste pad in black liquor solids, a caustic material, and died several weeks later from complications of chemical burns…
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…
Big Apple Wrecking and Construction Corp.
Willful scaffold fall-protection citation affirmed at $56,000, most serious items upheld
Big Apple Wrecking & Construction is a New York City demolition contractor. In mid-1998 OSHA inspected its demolition of a six-story theater building, where crews worked on the top level of scaffolding surrounding the structure. OSHA issued a serious citation, a repeat citation, and a willful…
Key Energy Services, Inc., and its successors
Vacuum-truck venting hazard affirmed, three other items vacated
Key Energy Services was servicing an oil well at the Garcia Lease when a vacuum-truck cargo tank exploded and a worker was fatally struck by flying parts. The judge found that Key should have recognized the fire and explosion hazard created by venting flammable crude-oil vapors beneath the truck…
A. J. McNulty & Company, Inc.
Mixed ruling on fall protection during precast concrete erection
A. J. McNulty & Company was erecting a precast concrete parking garage in White Plains, New York, when OSHA cited numerous fall-protection and other safety violations. The Commission rejected McNulty's request to exclude inspection evidence, finding that OSHA substantially honored the company's…
CB&I Constructors, Inc.
Commission approves settlement of gas-cylinder and scaffold case
CB&I Constructors was performing construction work at a wastewater treatment facility in Bellaire, Ohio. OSHA cited the company for storing oxygen and acetylene cylinders without the required separation and for leaving a scaffold platform more than 14 inches from the work face without guardrails or…
Cincinnati Incorporated
Bypassed lathe interlock exposed operators to rotating parts and flying chips
Cincinnati Incorporated manufactures metal-forming equipment at its Harrison, Ohio, plant. The company bypassed the interlock on an automated lathe so operators could partially open its door and hold newly threaded bolts with a PVC pipe during the cutoff cycle. The judge found that the door was…
McDevitt Street Bovis, Inc.
General contractor liable for a subcontractor's scaffold violations
McDevitt Street Bovis was the general contractor building a two-story medical center in Douglas, Georgia. During a 1997 inspection, OSHA found that a scaffold used by employees of subcontractor CPD Plastering was not fully planked, lacked cross-bracing, guardrails, and safe access, and had not been…
David Weekley Homes
General contractor citation vacated for insufficient proof and lack of knowledge
David Weekley Homes was the general contractor for residential construction at the Horizon Pointe development in Colorado. OSHA cited Weekley for nine conditions grouped into six willful items involving its safety program, hard hats, scaffold support, fall protection, guardrails, training, and…
Lavelle Construction
Default dismissal reversed and remanded for a hearing
Lavelle Construction is a small contractor that appeared before the Commission without a lawyer. After an OSHA inspection of its worksite in Ashland, Massachusetts, the agency issued serious and repeat citations with penalties totaling $7,800. Lavelle filed a timely notice of contest but never…
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…
Manganas Painting Co.
Commission affirms bridge fall violations and raises repeated-violation penalties
Manganas Painting was sandblasting and repainting the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge near Cincinnati, Ohio. OSHA cited the company after employees used an unguarded painter's pick and clipped safety-belt lanyards to beam openings in a way that could let the hooks disengage. The Commission held that the…
The Haskell Company
Scaffold items affirmed for hazards exposing its own employee
The Haskell Company was the general contractor expanding a pilot training center in Savannah, Georgia. OSHA found Haskell's employee working 12 feet above the ground on an exterior tubular-frame scaffold with wide gaps in the planking, missing guardrails, and no access ladder. The superintendent…
General Glass & Window, Inc.
All citations vacated after a glazier's fatal crushing
General Glass & Window is a Florida glass installation (glazing) company. In February 1999 an experienced glazier, working alone in the bed of a flatbed truck, was fatally injured when a stack of glass panes tilted and fell on him as he unloaded them at a West Palm Beach work site. OSHA…
A. W. Ross, Inc.
Late notice of contest, Rule 60(b) relief denied
A.W. Ross, Inc. is a small New Jersey company run by its president, Alexander Ross. OSHA inspected its Passaic facility in March 1999 and cited it for four serious violations with a proposed penalty of $2,550. Mr. Ross glanced at the citation, noticed only the abatement date, and assumed no penalty…
Wolkow Braker Roofing Corp.
Attorney fees awarded under EAJA for an excessive penalty demand
Wolkow Braker Roofing Corp. is a small roofing company that was cited after two OSHA inspections of the same worksite in 1997, with combined proposed penalties of $61,100, including a willful item carrying $56,000. After a consolidated trial, Administrative Law Judge Robert A. Yetman had vacated…
Summit Contractors, Inc.
Stair handrail item vacated, fire-extinguisher item affirmed without penalty
Summit Contractors was the general contractor building a two-story apartment complex in Guymon, Oklahoma. OSHA cited a stairway that lacked a handrail and the absence of fire extinguishers within the building. The judge found the handrail requirement infeasible during the narrow stage when workers…
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…
Ormet Primary Aluminum Corp., Hannibal Reduction Division
Commission remands a settlement approval to let the ALJ weigh the union's objections
Ormet Primary Aluminum ran an aluminum reduction plant in Hannibal, Ohio. After OSHA issued a five-item serious citation, Ormet and the Secretary of Labor signed a settlement that affirmed three items with penalties and withdrew the other two. The steelworkers union, which had elected party status…
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…
Trinity Industries, Inc. -- Plant 22, and its successors
Steel-tank storage citations vacated
Trinity Industries manufactured large steel tanks at its Fort Worth, Texas, plant and stored partly finished tanks close together on wooden supports and chocks between production steps. During lifting, one tank caught and raised the tank in front of it, dislodging a chock and causing that tank to…
Agra Erectors, Inc.
Serious citation affirmed, willful citation remanded after tower collapse
Agra Erectors is an Ohio company that erects grain elevators. In October 1997, while its crew was building an 85-foot grain elevator tower in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania, an employee working atop the fully erected tower died when the tower collapsed after the crane supporting it was disconnected and a…
William Rhodes Construction Co. and its successors
Late contest dismissed after partial payment and abatement certification
OSHA issued William Rhodes Construction two citations that explained the 15-working-day deadline for filing a notice of contest. The company did not contest within that period; its president later arranged installment payments, delivered a $1,000 check, and certified corrective action involving…
Future Home Technology, Inc.
Modular-home platform fall-protection violations affirmed
Future Home Technology manufactures modular housing in Port Jervis, New York. After inspections in early 1999, OSHA issued the company a nine-item serious citation and a one-item "other" citation. The company settled all but one item through a partial settlement. The remaining contested item…
Donrey Outdoor Advertising Co.
Billboard fall-protection violation affirmed
Donrey Outdoor Advertising sent a four-person crew to replace the vinyl face on a billboard beside an interstate in Little Rock, Arkansas. Two employees worked on an unguarded platform 70 feet above the ground without attaching their harness lanyards to the installed safety line, and they tied off…
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…
Trinity Marine Nashville, Inc.
Commission affirms electrical citations at a barge yard after a fatal electrocution
Trinity Marine Nashville builds river barges in Ashland City, Tennessee. OSHA inspected the yard after an employee was electrocuted when a drop light he was holding became energized through a miswired receptacle in a job-made portable electrical box. OSHA issued several electrical citations. The…
Worldwide Manufacturing, Inc.
Commission affirms willful and repeat machine-guarding violations and raises the penalties
Worldwide Manufacturing runs a small factory in Berkeley, Missouri that makes collapsible sawhorses, folding tables, and metal legs. OSHA inspected in 1995, cited machine-guarding and lockout/tagout problems, and Worldwide settled by agreeing to fix them. A 1997 follow-up inspection found many of…
Pool Company Texas, Ltd.
Commission approves a settlement withdrawing the fixed-stairs railing citation and sets aside the ALJ decision
Pool Company Texas runs oil-and-gas well-servicing (workover) rigs. During a January 1999 inspection at a lease near Peyote, Texas, OSHA cited the company because two sets of stairs leading up to the rig's operating platforms lacked a standard railing on one open side. The administrative law judge…
Lancaster Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Orbit Roofing Co.
Safety-program item vacated, glass-skylight item affirmed
Lancaster Enterprises, doing business as Orbit Roofing, was installing a rubber roof on a three-story apartment building in Massachusetts when an employee slipped near the roof edge and fell 33 feet to his death. The Commission upheld vacatur of the general safety-program item because the Secretary…
Merchant's Masonry, Inc.
Remand granted for consolidation and settlement
Merchant's Masonry had defaulted after a temporary secretary placed the complaint and Commission orders in the company president's rarely used office. On an earlier remand, the chief judge found that the company failed to exercise reasonable diligence and left the repeated citation and $21,000…
Merchant's Masonry, Inc.
Case remanded for consolidation and settlement
OSHA cited Merchant's Masonry after inspecting a Louisiana construction site and proposed a $21,000 penalty for a repeated violation. The company timely contested but then failed to answer the complaint or respond to a show-cause order after a temporary secretary placed multiple case documents in…
Alden Leeds, Inc.
Commission affirms a $107,100 failure-to-abate penalty for unsafe pool-chemical storage
Alden Leeds runs a wholesale pool-chemical business in South Kearny, New Jersey, where it stores large, constantly changing quantities of oxidizing chemicals that can feed a fire. OSHA cited the company under the general duty clause in 1990 and again in 1993 (after a large warehouse fire) for the…
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…
Mid City Motors
Settlement affirms four serious items with a $750 total penalty
OSHA inspected Mid City Motors and issued a citation alleging three serious violations with proposed penalties totaling $2,850. When the hearing opened, the parties reached an agreement resolving every issue. Their stipulation, incorporated into the order by reference, treated the third item as two…
Pasha Maritime Services, and its successors
Pedestrian and vehicle ramp separation violation affirmed
Pasha Maritime Services was unloading vehicles from the roll-on/roll-off vessel Blue Hawk. OSHA observed employees walking on the midship vehicle ramp, including one longshoreman who was passed by a shuttle van while no signalman was directing traffic. The ramp had no physical barrier separating…
Rio Doce Pasha Terminal L.P., and its successors
Suspended-load violation affirmed
Rio Doce Pasha Terminal was unloading steel plate from the vessel Jupiter Light when OSHA observed a longshoreman remaining in the open hold as a load was hoisted overhead. The judge found the worker was in the load's danger zone even if he was not directly beneath it because a failed sling could…
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.