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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Prospect Waterproofing Company
Roof-edge citation vacated for employee misconduct
OSHA cited Prospect Waterproofing Company after employees were observed near the edge of a multi-story roof without the required warning system. The judge found that the Secretary established an initial case but that the employer proved unpreventable employee misconduct. Prospect had an established…
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…
Ohio Cellular Products Corp.
Machine-guarding citation affirmed after fatal rotating-arm accident
Ohio Cellular Products Corp. molds polyethylene foam sports and automotive padding at a plant in Wauseon, Ohio, using large rotating "Rotocast" ovens. In October 1996 a relief operator was fatally injured when her clothing caught on an oven's rotating mold arm while she unloaded foam. OSHA cited…
Design Decorators, Inc.
Aerial-lift violations affirmed as willful, penalties reduced
Design Decorators, Inc. is a small, highly seasonal Pennsylvania company that installs and maintains public Christmas decorations using a truck-mounted aerial lift. In November 1995 a 22-year-old employee riding in the raised bucket was fatally injured when the truck drove under an underpass with…
Riccon Construction Corp.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citation stands
Riccon Construction Corp., a New York construction company, was cited by OSHA in a February 1996 citation that its president's 16-year-old daughter received and signed for. An employer has 15 working days to file a notice of contest, but Riccon never filed one with the Secretary and instead sent a…
National Engineering and Contracting Company
Boom-truck violation restored to willful
National Engineering and Contracting Company was building a highway sound wall and used a boom truck to place concrete traffic barriers. The truck tipped while a barrier was being moved without its front outriggers and rear stabilizers fully extended, killing one employee and seriously injuring…
Shoney's, Inc., d/b/a Captain D's
Kitchen receptacle citation vacated
Shoney's operated a Captain D's restaurant where employees cleaned the tiled kitchen floor daily with soapy and clean water. OSHA cited an electrical receptacle behind two fish fryers as unsuitable for a damp location under 29 C.F.R. § 1910.305(j)(2)(ii). The judge held that the standard was not…
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…
Halmar Corp. and DeFoe Corp., a Joint Venture
Power-line crane penalties assessed separately
Halmar Corp. and DeFoe Corp. used a crane to place concrete catch basins along the New York Thruway. While the crane backed about 400 feet with its boom fully extended, the boom contacted an overhead electrical line and an employee was electrocuted. The Commission found that the foreman knew or…
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…
Mobile Premix Concrete, Inc.
Sand hoppers held to be permit-required confined spaces
Mobile Premix Concrete operated below-ground sand and gravel hoppers that fed material onto a conveyor. An employee was buried in a sand hopper and died, and OSHA cited the company for failing to treat the hoppers as permit-required confined spaces. The Commission found that a live hopper limited…
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…
G-MAC Construction Company, Inc.
Willful scaffold citations reduced to serious, penalties cut sharply
G-MAC Construction Company, Inc. was the stucco subcontractor on a Comfort Inn project in Omaha, Nebraska, and in turn subcontracted the work to Eucardo Molina, whose crew worked from a 40-foot scaffold with no guardrails and climbed the frame to get on it. G-MAC argued Molina was an independent…
McNeilly Logging
Danger-tree and backcut citations affirmed against Montana logger
McNeilly Logging was cutting timber at the Dirty Ike Timber Sale in Montana when OSHA inspected following an accident. A sawyer, Michael Boehm, was seriously injured when a dead standing "snag" toppled and struck him while he was cutting a felled larch; he and a coworker had tested the snag…
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…
Midwest Masonry, Inc.
Repeat scaffold access and guardrail citations affirmed, penalties reduced
Midwest Masonry, Inc. was building a masonry wall in Kearney, Nebraska, when an OSHA compliance officer driving past videotaped workers climbing down a scaffold frame and working on an unguarded platform. OSHA issued two repeat citations, one for failing to provide a ladder or equivalent safe…
C & S Erectors, Inc.
Civil case stayed during criminal investigation
OSHA cited C & S Erectors after an employee died in a fall, proposing penalties totaling $396,200. The Department of Justice then opened a criminal investigation of alleged willful violations that caused the death and asked the Secretary to seek a stay of the civil case. The administrative law…
Monadnock Erectors, Inc.
Steel-erection safety-net citation affirmed from the bench
Monadnock Erectors, Inc., a New Hampshire steel erector, was cited for a single serious violation after employees erected steel more than 30 feet above the ground without safety nets. The cited standard requires safety nets when work is more than 25 feet up and ladders, scaffolds, catch platforms…
Triple J Construction
Repeat residential fall-protection violations affirmed
Triple J Construction had three workers removing shingles and tar paper from a steep residential roof about 12 feet above the ground without required fall protection. The company also lacked a training program for workers exposed to fall hazards and had previously received final citations for the…
Franklin E. Skepton Contractor, amended to Skepton Contracting Inc.
Hard-hat and LP-gas items affirmed
Skepton was a prime contractor on a middle-school construction project. The judge affirmed a repeat hard-hat violation after the superintendent walked near a moving backhoe without head protection, finding he had access to a possible impact hazard. She vacated an eye-protection item because Skepton…
Drexel Chemical Co.
Generic safety programs found inadequate
OSHA cited Drexel Chemical's manufacturing plant for permit-space, lockout, and material-storage violations. The Commission vacated the workplace-evaluation item because a qualified manager familiar with the plant had evaluated its spaces, and it vacated the warning-sign item because access was…
Caterpillar, Inc.
Press-guarding violations affirmed as repeat and willful
Caterpillar employees frequently operated a 700-ton hydraulic press with its protective light curtain disabled, exposing them to a point-of-operation pinch hazard. The Commission classified that violation as repeated because an earlier final citation involved a substantially similar descending-ram…
Tri-State Steel Construction Company, Inc.
EAJA fee case referred after court remand
Tri-State Steel Construction sought fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The Commission had aggregated Tri-State's net worth with that of its parent and found the company above the $7 million eligibility limit. The Sixth Circuit reversed that ruling and remanded the matter. The…
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…
BFW Construction Co.
Subsidiary remains eligible for EAJA fees
BFW Construction sought attorney's fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act after prevailing in an OSHRC matter. BFW's own net worth was below the $7 million eligibility ceiling, but its corporate parent exceeded that limit. The Commission decided that future cases should use a clearer rule…
National Acoustics, Inc.
Housekeeping citation tossed, but electrical-hazard citations upheld against a demolition subcontractor
National Acoustics was a demolition and cleanup subcontractor on a hotel renovation in Chicago. OSHA inspected in August 1996 and issued a serious citation with three items: one for scrap lumber with protruding nails and other debris on the floor, and two for letting employees work close to live…
Contour Erection & Siding Systems, Inc.
Crane-overload citation vacated
Contour Erection used a crawler crane to lift a large roof truss at a sports arena when the boom and load collapsed to the floor without injuring anyone. OSHA alleged that the crane exceeded the manufacturer's load limits and cited two duplicative crane standards. The judge found that OSHA relied…
G & C Foundry Company
Commission affirms silica engineering-control and formaldehyde-sampling citations against an iron foundry
G & C Foundry makes iron castings at a plant in Sandusky, Ohio, using induction furnaces that must be relined with silica every two weeks. OSHA measured workers relining the furnaces at up to 24 times the permissible silica dust limit and cited the company for failing to use feasible administrative…
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…
CF Motorfreight, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed, citations become final
CF Motorfreight, a trucking company, was cited by OSHA after an inspection of its Richfield, Ohio terminal. An employer has 15 working days from receiving a citation to file a notice of contest, and if it misses that deadline the citation and penalties become a final Commission order automatically…
John Carter d/b/a J.B.'s Tree Service
Tree-work citations affirmed with $6,500 in penalties
John Carter directed workers removing branches from a large oak tree at a private residence. Two workers were struck by falling limbs, and one died three days later. OSHA cited Carter for exposing employees to falling limbs without adequate warnings and safeguards, and for failing to report the…
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…
McCarson's Quality Covering
Roofing safety violations affirmed
McCarson's Quality Covering used employees to replace a residential roof near an energized service line. OSHA found that the ladder-jack scaffold was about 12 inches from the unguarded power line, employees had no conventional fall protection on the steep roof, and the employer lacked adequate…
D'Ambra Construction Company, Inc.
Utility-location violation affirmed with reduced penalty
D'Ambra Construction was cited for beginning excavation work without first determining the location of an underground gas line. The judge issued a bench decision after an E-Z Trial hearing. The serious violation was affirmed. The proposed $4,000 penalty was reduced to $1,000.
Esprit Constructors, Inc., C. T. Taylor Company, Inc.
Roller-compactor violations affirmed
Esprit Constructors and C. T. Taylor worked together at a construction site where an Esprit employee was fatally struck by a roller-compactor operated by Taylor's project manager. The judge did not decide whether the manager's lack of qualification caused the death, but found him unqualified…
James Womack, Steven Womack and Kenny Womack, Individually and d/b/a Womack Brothers
Reconsideration denied on trench exposure
The Secretary asked the judge to reconsider a finding that employee exposure to a cited trench condition had not been proved. The Secretary argued that two witness statements showed the witness had entered the trench while its sides extended above the trench box. Based on observing the witness and…
Gutknecht Construction Co.
Settlement approved as final order
After the case was directed for Commission review, the parties filed a stipulation and settlement agreement. The Commission found that the agreement raised no issue warranting further review and was consistent with the Occupational Safety and Health Act and Commission rules. It incorporated the…
Active Fire Sprinkler Corp.
One electrical item withdrawn, cord strain-relief violation affirmed
Active Fire Sprinkler Corp. was installing sprinkler piping at a New York construction site when OSHA inspected in May 1996 and issued a two-item serious electrical citation. At the hearing the company showed that the worker exposed to the condition in Item 1 was not its employee, so the Secretary…
Delta Line Construction Company
Highway barricade violation affirmed
Delta Line Construction placed a utility-truck bucket over an open highway lane while an employee rewired a traffic signal. A tractor-trailer struck the bucket, separating it from the boom, and the employee fell and sustained serious injuries. The judge found that the applicable traffic-control…
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…
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…
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…
M.B. Waterproofing, Inc.
Contest after signed settlement dismissed
OSHA issued M.B. Waterproofing a three-item serious citation and a six-item other-than-serious citation. The company's manager negotiated and signed an informal settlement that reduced the penalties and expressly waived the right to contest. The company later arranged an installment plan but did…
M.B. Construction Company
Nine-month-late contest dismissed
OSHA issued M.B. Construction a serious citation with ten items after inspecting a construction site. The company received the citation in July 1995 but did not file its notice of contest until May 1996, nine months after the statutory deadline. The judge rejected the company's claim that OSHA…
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…
Trinity Masonry & Stucco, Inc.
Settlement approval affirmed
An ALJ approved the parties' settlement agreement. The employer petitioned for review, and the settlement order was directed for Commission review. After reviewing the case, the Commission affirmed the ALJ's order.
Traylor Brothers, Inc.
Unsecured fall-arrest anchorage violation affirmed
Traylor Brothers was the general contractor on a bridge project where a subcontractor's employee attached his safety lanyard to a suspended track during form-setting work. The track slipped from its clamp, fell from the bridge, and pulled the employee into the river, where he drowned. The judge…
Northern Energy, Inc.
Late contest caused by vacation dismissed
Northern Energy received an OSHA citation on December 12, 1996, and had until January 6, 1997, to contest it. The company sent its contest letter on January 8 after the official responsible for OSHA matters returned from a scheduled vacation. The judge found no improper conduct by OSHA and no…
Bedlam Brass Corporation
Repair letter did not preserve contest rights
Bedlam Brass received OSHA citations on July 22, 1996, and had until August 12 to file a notice of contest. Its August 22 letter listed repairs the company had made but did not say that it contested the citations or penalties. The judge found that the citation and accompanying booklet clearly…
Meer Corporation
Process-safety citations vacated, shaft guard item affirmed
Meer Corporation used large quantities of methanol and ethanol while manufacturing botanical products. OSHA alleged numerous process safety management violations, arguing that atmospheric storage tanks were connected to the production process. The judge found that OSHA's witnesses gave inconsistent…
Pepperidge Farm, Inc.
Recordkeeping and lifting violations affirmed, repetitive-motion items vacated
OSHA cited Pepperidge Farm for 176 recordkeeping violations, 21 lifting allegations, and 175 repetitive-motion allegations at a cookie and baked-goods plant. The Commission affirmed the recordkeeping violations as willful and assessed instance-by-instance penalties totaling $289,603. It held that…
George Campbell Painting Corp.
Scaffold-transfer violation affirmed as serious
George Campbell Painting used suspended swing scaffolds while repainting a bridge cable. A painter died after falling more than 300 feet while repositioning a scaffold in the air even though a closed traffic lane was available below. The serious general-duty violation itself was not under review…
Foit-Albert Associates, Architects & Engineers, P.C.
Concrete citations vacated for inspection-only engineer
Foit-Albert provided engineering inspection services at a university construction project where concrete collapsed from one floor onto another. OSHA cited the firm under cast-in-place concrete standards. The Commission found that Foit-Albert's contract limited it to inspecting work for compliance…
IBP, Inc.
Contractor lockout violations affirmed as serious
IBP hired a sanitation contractor to clean meat-processing machinery each night. Contractor employees repeatedly worked on moving or unlocked equipment, and one employee was killed while removing debris from an energized machine. The Commission held IBP responsible even though only contractor…
Fluor Constructors International, Inc.
Scaffold grounding requirement affirmed
Fluor employees performed arc cutting and welding from wire-suspended scaffolds inside a boiler renovation project. Two scaffolds fell after electrical current reached and severed their suspension cables, injuring employees despite fall-arrest equipment. Fluor tried to isolate the scaffolds with…
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…
Hospitality Management, Inc., d/b/a Executive Inn
Serious electrical violation affirmed after a maintenance worker was electrocuted
Hospitality Management ran the Executive Inn hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. OSHA inspected after a referral from the Fulton County Fire Department and cited the company for a serious violation of the electrical safety standard at 29 C.F.R. § 1910.333(a)(1), which requires live parts to be deenergized…
Alan Gregor, d/b/a Gregor Construction Company
Missing-safety-program citation affirmed against a metal-framing subcontractor
OSHA inspected a community-college construction site in Niceville, Florida, after a worker fell 85 feet to his death from a scaffold. That worker did not work for Gregor Construction, the metal-framing subcontractor, but the inspection led OSHA to cite Gregor for three serious violations. After 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…
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.