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.
No decisions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Sechrist-Hall Company
Three roof-safety cases remanded for merits decisions
OSHA issued serious fall-protection citations after Sechrist-Hall employees worked on three unguarded roof areas 16 or 22 feet above the ground. One site also produced a nonserious citation because a ladder did not extend 36 inches above the landing and had no grab rails. The judge vacated all…
Underhill Construction Corp. & DIC Concrete Corp, d/b/a DIC Underhill, A Joint Venture
Ninth-floor safety-belt citation affirmed
Employees of the DIC-Underhill joint venture stacked and rigged plywood at the unguarded edge of a building's ninth floor. As a load shifted during hoisting, one employee moved to avoid it, stepped off the edge, and fell to his death. The judge found that perimeter railings could not remain in…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corporation and Beach Concrete Company, Inc., a Joint Venture, d/b/a Nasso Beach Concrete
Citation vacated for lack of reasonable promptness
Nasso Beach Concrete was the concrete subcontractor on a high-rise apartment project. An employee installing perimeter guardrail protection on the sixteenth floor fell and died, and OSHA investigated the next day. The area director decided on December 26, 1972, to issue a citation concerning fall…
Laster and Fingeret, Inc.
Penalties imposed for eight admitted construction violations
Laster and Fingeret was the general contractor at a building project and admitted three serious and five nonserious construction violations. The cited conditions included missing stair and perimeter railings, unguarded floor openings, fire-extinguisher and first-aid deficiencies, unsecured gas…
Underhill Construction Corp.
Open-floor fall hazard affirmed for $700
Underhill Construction employees stripped concrete forms near unguarded perimeters on the 18th through 20th floors of a New York apartment project. The judge vacated the citation because contract negotiations began before the effective dates stated in a Construction Safety Act provision. The…
A. B. Hall, d/b/a Dixie Roofing & Metal Co.
Roof citations reduced to nonserious
Dixie Roofing employees installed roofing around 12 unguarded openings and along unguarded edges about 15 to 16 feet above lower surfaces. They also used an unsecured wooden ladder several times each day to reach the roof. The judge affirmed all three violations but reduced the roof-opening and…
Langer Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc.
Flat-roof edge violation affirmed
Langer employees worked on an unguarded flat roof more than six feet above the adjacent level. The Commission held that the open-sided-floor standard applied to flat roofs and affirmed that nonserious violation with a $55 penalty. A separate four-foot-square opening was covered by an unfastened…
Larry D. Mack, General Contractor
Three construction items affirmed without penalties
OSHA cited six conditions at a small construction project. The judge affirmed a technical open-wiring violation because a partially covered energized panel remained accessible, a stair-railing violation because carpenters were using the stairs, and a fire-extinguisher violation because travel…
Grebb Electric Company
Housekeeping item affirmed and access hazards vacated
Grebb Electric was an electrical subcontractor at a large Denver apartment construction project. OSHA found scrap lumber and debris in areas where Grebb employees were working, along with temporary stairs lacking rails, protruding nails in stair treads, and open elevated platforms. The judge…
J. F. Probst & Co., Inc.
Roof guardrail citation reinstated with $25 penalty
J. F. Probst employees performed roofing work about 20 feet above the ground without a standard railing or equivalent fall protection. The judge vacated that item because he found the open-sided floor and platform rule inapplicable to roofs. The Commission reversed, holding that the standard…
RPM Erectors, Inc.
High-rise platform violation reclassified as serious
RPM Erectors used a movable platform outside a high-rise building to land curtain-wall materials. While RPM employees used it, the side guardrails lacked intermediate rails and toeboards, exposing employees to falls from heights between 18 and 33 stories. The platform was later damaged after RPM…
L. I. Dumont, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail violation affirmed
L. I. Dumont installed roofing materials on a one-story Alabama store building with an essentially flat roof about 20 feet above the ground. Three or four employees worked on the roof, including near its edges, and the company never installed guardrails or another barricade. The Commission affirmed…
Julius Nasso Concrete Corp.
Flat-roof perimeter allegation remanded
Julius Nasso Concrete Corporation performed concrete work on a 17-story building where OSHA cited unguarded floor perimeters and open shaftways. The judge affirmed serious violations involving open-sided floors from the 13th through 16th floors and unguarded openings on the 13th floor, assessing…
Barnaby Concrete Corporation
High-rise perimeter violation affirmed
Barnaby Concrete poured structural concrete for a high-rise building where portions of the 21st floor and all sides of the 22nd floor lacked required perimeter protection. Employees unloaded reinforcing materials through an unguarded 20-foot opening, and other employees worked on the open floors…
Universal Sheet Metal Corp.
Exterior-shaft railing citation vacated
Universal Sheet Metal installed ductwork in exterior shafts of a multistory hospital addition. After an employee fell from the 21st level and died, OSHA cited the company for failing to guard an open-sided triangular floor area at the building corner. The Commission found that a standard railing…
Martin Iron Works, Inc.
Open-floor citation vacated for lack of employee exposure
Martin Iron Works removed a 4-by-8-foot steel plate from a stairway platform about 170 feet above the basement floor at a construction site. The removal left an unguarded opening, and employees of another subcontractor worked nearby. Martin's own employees were not exposed and had no reason to…
Robert J. Lzicar
Floor, saw, and electrical violations affirmed
Robert J. Lzicar performed carpentry, steel framing, and concrete work at a large construction project. Employees worked near the unguarded edge of a partially completed second floor 22 feet above the surface below, and two saws lacked required blade guards. The judge affirmed those three serious…
Langer Roofing and Sheet Metal, Inc.
Flat-roof perimeter violation affirmed
Langer Roofing employees worked near the unguarded edge of a flat roof about 20 feet above the ground. The Commission held that the open-sided-floor standard applies to flat roofs and affirmed the violation. A low parapet provided some protection, so the violation's gravity was low to moderate, and…
W. B. Meredith II, Inc.
One contested item affirmed and others vacated
W. B. Meredith II was a general construction contractor building a five-story reinforced concrete building. OSHA issued three serious and fourteen non-serious citation items with $1,750 in proposed penalties. The Commission upheld the judge's vacatur of the contested electrical-box, guardrail…
Lipsky & Rosenthal, Inc.
Sixth-floor guardrail item reduced to non-serious
Lipsky & Rosenthal was a plumbing subcontractor on an apartment construction project. Three employees hauled plumbing materials while standing at the unguarded edge of a sixth floor. The Secretary charged that condition as non-serious, but the judge classified it as serious and assessed $250. The…
Humphreys & Harding, Inc.
Serious fall-hazard citations vacated for lack of exposure
Humphreys & Harding managed construction of a seventeen-story building and had contract responsibility for guardrails and debris removal. OSHA cited unguarded floor perimeters, material-hoist entrances, and elevator shafts as serious violations. The Commission affirmed vacatur because the Secretary…
Hoffman Electric Co.
Floor-opening and perimeter citations affirmed
Hoffman Electric performed electrical construction in buildings with unguarded floor openings and open-sided floors. Its employees used elevator-shaft ladderways and worked where materials were moved along the outside of the building. The judge held that the subcontractor remained responsible for…
DIC-Underhill, A Joint Venture
Open-floor citation affirmed and storage item vacated
DIC-Underhill was constructing high-rise housing where employees worked on open-sided upper floors without perimeter railings or personal fall protection. The judge found a serious violation because five employees were exposed on three floors and a fall could have grave consequences. He assessed…
Florida East Coast Properties, Inc.
Settlement cuts one penalty but retains serious classification
Florida East Coast Properties received two serious construction citations and several other-than-serious items, but contested only the proposed penalties. In a settlement, the Secretary agreed that the evidence could not sustain the serious classification for an open-sided-floor item and proposed…
Lance Roofing Co., Inc.
Roof-edge guarding citation reinstated
Lance Roofing employees were installing a roof on a three-story motel without guardrails or an equivalent means of preventing falls from the edge. The judge vacated that item because he concluded that the open-sided-floor standard did not apply to flat roofs. Applying its decisions in related…
Moser Heating & Roofing Co., Inc.
Official release ends before the disposition
The Commission reviewed a judge's decision vacating an other-than-serious citation under the open-sided-floor standard. The judge had concluded that 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(d)(1) did not apply to flat roofs. The Commission stated that it had reviewed the entire record and was adopting the judge's…
Dixie Electric, Inc.
Unguarded-floor penalty increased
Dixie Electric employees performed electrical work close to the unguarded edge of a third floor, 35 feet above the ground, and used stairs without railings. The judge affirmed non-serious violations for the open-sided floor and stairways, assessed penalties of $35 and $25, and vacated an item…
State Sheet Metal & Roofing Co.
Flat-roof citation vacated with prejudice
State Sheet Metal employees installed flashing and guttering at the unguarded edge of a flat roof nearly 25 feet above the ground. The judge vacated the serious citation because he concluded that section 1926.500(d)(1) did not apply to flat roofs. The Commission stated that the standard does apply…
Glen Construction Company, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail citation affirmed
Glen Construction contested a non-serious citation alleging that an open-sided roof lacked guarding required by section 1926.500(d)(1). The judge granted summary judgment to the company because he concluded that the standard did not apply to flat roofs. The Commission rejected that interpretation…
Brown & Kerr, Inc.
Flat-roof citation vacated with prejudice
Brown & Kerr employees were installing guttering at the outside edge of a flat roof when OSHA issued a serious citation under the open-sided-floor guarding standard. The judge vacated the citation because he concluded that the standard did not apply to flat roofs. The Commission stated that the…
Heyse Sheet Metal & Roofing Co., Inc.
Roof guardrail and access violations affirmed
Heyse Sheet Metal employees installed a virtually flat roof about 30 feet above the ground without perimeter railings and used a material-hoist frame instead of a ladder for access. The judge affirmed the ladder-access violation with a $500 penalty but vacated the roof-edge item. The Commission…
S. D. Mullins Company, Inc. and Diamond Roofing Company, Inc.
Flat-roof guardrail violations affirmed
Employees of S. D. Mullins and Diamond Roofing worked on an unguarded flat roof about 25 feet above the ground. The judge vacated both roof-edge citations because he concluded that the open-sided-floor standard did not cover roofs. The Commission reversed, holding that a flat roof on which…
Hersman Construction Co.
Three guarding violations affirmed and failure-to-abate penalties rejected
Hersman Construction received citations covering fall protection, floor and stair guarding, debris disposal, citation posting, and housekeeping at a building project. The judge found that OSHA proved only two open-sided-floor guarding violations and one inadequately covered floor opening. He…
Genco, Inc.
Construction citation vacated after inspection violations
OSHA issued Genco a 13-item non-serious citation after inspecting its construction work at Honolulu International Airport. The judge vacated the citation because the compliance officer began the inspection before presenting credentials to the owner, operator, or agent in charge as required by the…
Tishman Realty & Construction Company, Inc.
High-rise perimeter and debris citations affirmed
Tishman was the general contractor for a New York high-rise construction project. Multiple floors had no perimeter protection or lacked midrails and toeboards, including open sections near material and concrete hoists, and the twelfth and thirteenth floors contained accumulated construction waste…
James L. Brussa, Masonry
Dismissal for failure to post citation reversed
OSHA cited James L. Brussa for removing required guardrails from open-sided fourth- and fifth-floor work areas and proposed a $150 penalty. Brussa contested but admitted that he had not posted the citation at or near the worksite. The administrative law judge treated that posting failure as grounds…
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.