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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Wayne Taysom & Eli Taysom, d/b/a Taysom Construction Company
Crane power-line violation affirmed with a $300 penalty
Taysom Construction was building a concrete bank vault and used a crane to move cement from a delivery truck to the vault. The crane boom contacted an energized 12,000-volt power line, and the delivery-truck driver was killed when current traveled through the crane cable and bucket. The judge found…
Davenport Brothers, Inc.
Trench and head-protection violations affirmed, penalty reduced to $200
Davenport Brothers sent two employees into a trench to repair a broken water line. The judge found that the trench was more than five feet deep and was not shored, braced, or sloped, and that neither employee wore protective headgear. The Commission affirmed the serious trenching violation and the…
Carolina Power and Light Company
Settlement approved with surplus order language stricken
OSHA cited Carolina Power and Light Company for allowing fly ash to accumulate on a floor in a load allegedly greater than the structure was designed or approved to support. The parties settled after the company moved to withdraw its notice of contest, represented that the condition had been…
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…
Greguson's Nursery, Inc.
Limited contest made power-line citation final, penalty set at $100
Greguson's Nursery performed landscaping work, and one of its employees was electrocuted when the boom he was operating contacted an energized power line while he moved boulders. The employer's notice of contest expressly challenged only OSHA's proposed $600 penalty. The Commission held that the…
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…
C. N. Flagg & Company, Inc., d/b/a Northeastern Contracting Company
Serious trench violation affirmed, willful citation vacated
Flagg was installing sewer pipe in a trench more than 15 feet deep. The trench boxes and sheeting did not protect the bottom portion, where employees worked, and the Commission upheld the finding that the soil was unstable. It affirmed a serious trenching violation and its $700 penalty from the…
Carpenter Rigging and Contracting Corporation
Serious fall-protection violation reinstated with a $650 penalty
Carpenter Rigging was a subcontractor constructing an automated container warehouse at John F. Kennedy Airport. Two employees repositioned planking while standing on eight-inch girders about 21 feet above a concrete floor without safety belts or lanyards, and one employee fell and died. The…
Hoffman Construction Co.
Fall-protection violation affirmed, scaffold item vacated
Hoffman Construction employees installing concrete forms at a nuclear power project worked about 40 to 50 feet above the ground while wearing safety belts but not tying off their lanyards. The Commission found that most of the workers were stationary, could feasibly tie off, and faced a serious…
Bay Marina, Inc.
Forklift failure-to-abate penalty set at $315
Bay Marina sold, stored, and repaired boats using a forklift that had an added counterweight without the manufacturer's approval. The company admitted the powered-industrial-truck violations and failed to remove the counterweight by the abatement date, leaving only the additional penalty in…
Todd Shipyards Corp.
Three repeated ship-repair violations affirmed
Todd Shipyards was repairing the S/S OREGON MAIL when OSHA found an unguarded manhole, an obstructed passageway, and an employee working from a scaffold railing without fall protection. The judge found repeated violations of the manhole, housekeeping, and elevated-work standards because earlier…
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…
Dayton Tire & Rubber Co.
Recordkeeping duty covered supplied warehouse workers
Dayton operated a tire warehouse using about 65 workers supplied and paid by Manpower, Inc. Dayton selected the workers, trained and equipped them, controlled their schedules and assignments, supervised them, and could discipline or remove them. The Commission held that economic reality made Dayton…
California Rotogravure Co.
Storage-roof violation affirmed without penalty
California Rotogravure operated a printing plant where employees occasionally climbed onto an unguarded office roof to handle stored materials. The Commission held that the roof became a working platform when employees used it and affirmed the guardrail violation without a penalty. It vacated a…
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…
Badger Aluminum Extrusion Corp.
Acid-tank platform penalty restored
Badger Aluminum used an unguarded platform above a tank containing a five-foot depth of 15 percent sulfuric acid solution. An employee worked on the platform, creating a risk of falling into the tank. The judge affirmed a nonserious guardrail violation but vacated the proposed penalty because the…
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, A Div. of United Aircraft Corp.
Loading-area general-duty citation vacated
Pratt & Whitney loaded tractor-trailers on a service road near a remote storage building, using forklifts for about 30 minutes at a time. Traffic was infrequent, moved slowly, and consisted mainly of company vehicles, while the forklifts and trucks used warning lights and employees followed safety…
Uriel G. Ashworth
Masonry-wall shoring citation vacated
Ashworth was the masonry subcontractor on a school project where tall block walls remained unbraced before the roof trusses were installed. One wall collapsed during a weekend, and a second wall later collapsed, killing one worker and injuring several others. OSHA cited the masonry contractor under…
Marine Terminals Corp.
Posted settlement approved without separate service proof
Marine Terminals contested only the two $125 penalties associated with its citation, so the citation itself had already become final. The parties agreed that OSHA would withdraw one proposed penalty and the employer would withdraw its contest to the other. The settlement was posted at the worksite…
Deemer Steel Casting Co.
Grinding-dust abatement stayed for variance review
Deemer Steel used portable grinders to clean castings without hoods or enclosures connected to an exhaust system. The parties agreed that no workable system had been arranged for the varied work positions, and the company began requiring respirators after the citation. The Commission affirmed the…
St. Regis Paper Co.
Noise-abatement extension affirmed after employee notice
St. Regis sought additional time to correct employee noise exposures at its Bucksport, Maine, facility. The judge granted an extension from August 6, 1974, to March 1, 1983, following the timetable in the company's hazard profile study. OSHA did not object and stated that the company had made a…
Structural Steel Erectors, Inc., d/b/a Pecosteel-Arizona
Serious skylight violation affirmed
Pecosteel installed a metal roof with four plastic skylight panels that could not support a 200-pound person. The job foreman initially kept the skylights covered with metal sheets but removed those sheets when other roofing material failed to arrive. The next morning the foreman fell through an…
Traders Oil Mill Co.
Raw-cotton-dust items vacated on summary judgment
OSHA cited Traders Oil Mill for failing to control alleged excessive concentrations of raw cotton dust. The plant superintendent submitted an affidavit stating that the facility processed only cottonseed and did not procure, process, or otherwise handle raw cotton. OSHA did not file a…
James Tice, d/b/a Tice Industries
Swing-saw citation split, penalty cut to $50
Tice Industries used a metal swing saw that could extend beyond the workbench and had a blade guarded only on its upper half. The employer's informal answer timely challenged the allegation that the saw's overtravel exposed the operator's body, and the Commission found OSHA had not proved that…
Peter Bratti Associates, Inc. & D'Adderio Construction Co., Inc.
Cylinder and fire-protection citations vacated
Bratti performed stonework and D'Adderio performed brickwork on a 15-story construction project where compressed-gas cylinders were found lying on their sides without valve caps. OSHA also alleged that required fire extinguishers were missing. The judge found insufficient evidence that either…
Martin Iron Works, Inc.
Crane inspection violations added without penalties
Martin Iron Works used a crane beyond the manufacturer's rated lifting radius and capacity during structural steel erection at a Nevada casino project. The judge affirmed that serious violation for $850, along with an inadequate ladder for $55, unsecured gas cylinders for $55, and an improperly…
Weicker Transfer & Storage Co.
Crane lessor remained employer of leased crew
Weicker leased a crane, operator, and oiler to a construction contractor under an agreement placing the crew under the contractor's exclusive supervision and control. The operator and oiler still reported to Weicker, punched its time clock, were paid by it, considered themselves its employees, and…
Edgewood Construction Co.
Gas-detection general-duty violation affirmed
Edgewood installed a sewer beside a corroded natural-gas line that leaked repeatedly during the project. Employees relied on odor and waited 15 minutes for ventilation before entering the sewer, but the company did not use gas-detection instruments or change its ventilation methods. Gas accumulated…
Murphy Pacific Marine Salvage Co.
Eye-protection violation affirmed for $25
An individual at Murphy Pacific's Staten Island yard used an air hose to clean an engine without protective goggles. When OSHA pointed out the condition, the foreman stopped the work and the individual retrieved goggles from his locker before resuming. The Commission inferred from the…
McGuire & Hester
Trench and spoil-pile violations affirmed
McGuire & Hester reopened a trench to reposition a water line beneath a gas main. An employee worked in a section more than five feet deep that lacked adequate shoring or compliant sloping, while traffic and heavy equipment operated nearby. Excavated soil three to four feet high was also piled…
Norfolk & Western Railway Co.
Poster item affirmed, recordkeeping items vacated
Norfolk & Western operated a railroad switching and maintenance yard in Bellevue, Ohio. OSHA cited it for failing to post the required employee-rights notice and for failing to maintain the injury log, supplementary record, and annual summary. The Commission affirmed the poster citation and its $50…
Chamberlain Manufacturing Corp.
Nine violations affirmed, penalties set at $1,292.50
Chamberlain operated an Iowa manufacturing plant producing ammunition components, appliance shelving, and aluminum ladders. The judge affirmed nine nonserious items involving damaged hoist ropes and a distorted hook, missing electrical covers, excessive compressed-air pressure, emergency washing…
Heede International, Inc.
Serious wire-rope clip violation affirmed
Heede directed the dismantling of a climbing crane inside a building under construction in Puerto Rico. A 7/8-inch wire-rope sling used in the operation was formed with three U-bolt clips, while the applicable table required four. The judge found that Heede controlled the crane operation and the…
A. G. Pinkston Co., Inc.
Serious trench penalty reduced to $250
Pinkston employees worked in a trench about seven feet deep without adequate shoring or sloping. The soil was cohesive clay, but it was not solid rock or another material exempt from the trench-protection requirement, and some soil had already sloughed from the side. The judge found a serious…
Allied Structural Steel Co.
Bridge fall-protection violations affirmed
Allied Structural Steel employees worked on a Mississippi River bridge at elevations about 80 feet above a concrete deck and 100 feet above the water. Several employees lacked safety nets, belts, scaffolds, catch platforms, or comparable fall protection, and employees moved between elevations by…
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…
Godwin-Bevers Co., Inc.
General-duty citation vacated because crane standard applied
Godwin-Bevers directed a leased crane and rigging crew while erecting precast concrete units beneath a 7,620-volt power line. A crane cable contacted the line, killing the contractor's foreman and injuring another employee and the crane lessor's oiler. OSHA cited Godwin-Bevers under the general…
State Contracting Co., Inc.
Hard-hat item affirmed, trench penalties reduced
Two State Contracting employees worked in a deep trench that lacked required shoring or sloping, had no ladder for exit, and exposed them to falling material without hard hats. The employer had supplied hard hats and required their use, but the parties tried whether the employees actually wore…
E. C. Ernst, Inc.
Delayed hard-hat item vacated, housekeeping affirmed
OSHA inspected Ernst's electrical work at a multi-employer construction site and issued a citation 69 days later. The hard-hat item involved an employee who left Ernst before the citation issued and could not later be located. The Commission affirmed vacation of that item because the delay…
Gelhaar Uniform Co.
Needle-guard violation affirmed, exit item vacated
Gelhaar manufactured uniforms using dozens of powered sewing machines without point-of-operation needle guards. The Commission affirmed that violation and its $30 penalty because the exposed needles could puncture operators and employee resistance did not excuse missing guards. It vacated a…
Abdo S. Allen Co.
Demolition, posting, and recordkeeping allegations vacated
A front-end loader operator was killed when he drove onto an underground tunnel roof despite repeated instructions and warnings to avoid it. The Commission affirmed the judge's order vacating every allegation. The employer could not reasonably have anticipated the experienced operator's conduct…
Safeway Stores, Inc.
Wheel-blocking violations affirmed before reconsideration
Safeway routinely loaded and unloaded semitrailers at three distribution facilities without wheel chocks or blocks. The Commission affirmed three violations of the truck-operations standard and penalties totaling $110. It vacated the parallel allegations under a second powered-industrial-truck…
Chicago Bridge & Iron Co.
Electrical and passageway items affirmed
Chicago Bridge & Iron was one of many contractors building nuclear-reactor containment vessels. OSHA cited improper attachment plugs, unguarded temporary bulbs, temporary lights suspended by unsuitable cords, 110-volt portable lighting in moist metal vessels, and hoses and cables obstructing…
Charles A. Davison & Margaret S. Davison, dba Davison Wood Products
Machine-guarding items affirmed without penalties
OSHA cited a small woodworking business for unguarded sanding machines, a jointer, saw belts and pulleys, and a rip saw, along with alleged electrical, spray-booth ventilation, and first-aid violations. The judge affirmed the four machine-guarding items without penalties. He vacated the electrical…
Shaffer Construction & Engineering Co.
Fatal trenching violations affirmed
Eight employees worked in an approximately eight-foot-deep trench cut into soft, wet, unstable soil near highway and railroad traffic. The walls were almost vertical, had no shoring or bracing, and one wall collapsed and killed an employee. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of the…
Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Forklift overhead-guard citation vacated
Anheuser-Busch operated 17 forklifts without overhead guards in brewery aisles bordered by stacked cans, bottles, kegs, and pallets. The judge found that the employer restricted those forklifts to operations without a foreseeable falling-object danger and that its stacking and handling practices…
J.M. Roofing Co.
Fatal crane power-line violation affirmed
A crane lowering roofing equipment contacted an energized 4,800-volt power line and electrocuted an employee. The foreman knew the crane was operating in the narrow area between the building and the line but took no effective action to maintain the required ten-foot clearance. The Commission…
West Allis Lime and Cement Company
Reverse-alarm citation vacated
A ready-mix concrete truck backed approximately 650 feet through a construction site without a reverse alarm or observer. The judge held that the truck driver's work was construction activity covered by the cited standard, but vacated because OSHA did not prove that the truck's rear view was…
Frozen Fruit Concentrates, Inc.
Forklift overhead-guard violation affirmed
A forklift operator removed a damaged overhead guard and used the truck for about six hours to stack cartons of frozen juice as high as 11 feet 3 inches. His supervisor saw the unguarded truck in operation. The Commission affirmed a serious violation because cartons stacked above the operator could…
Spring Air Mattress Co. of Colorado
Cotton-dust citation vacated for inconclusive sampling
Spring Air Mattress processed cotton linters into batting in a garnetting room where visible dust settled on employees and machinery. OSHA sampled two employees for about three and a half hours and calculated total dust concentrations of 3.15 and 2.90 milligrams per cubic meter, above the…
D. Fortunato, Inc.
Failure-to-abate notice vacated as premature
D. Fortunato did not contest a serious citation alleging missing scaffold guardrails and paid its $550 penalty. The citation was received on January 15 and required immediate abatement. OSHA reinspected the next day, found the condition uncorrected, and issued a failure-to-abate notice with an…
Atlantic Dry Dock Corporation and Atlantic Marine, Inc.
Late contest dismissed
Atlantic Dry Dock and Atlantic Marine settled an earlier citation case that required abatement of specified conditions. OSHA later issued a failure-to-abate notification with $7,982 in additional penalties. The companies did not file their notice of contest within the statutory 15-working-day…
Penn Central Transportation Company
Untimely railroad citations remained final
OSHA cited Penn Central for unsafe track conditions and multiple shop, office, electrical, housekeeping, and recordkeeping conditions at a Virginia rail yard. Penn Central did not timely contest the original citations, so the Commission held that they became final by operation of law and the…
Limbach Company, Inc.
Scaffold-base violation affirmed without penalty
Two employees worked from a tubular welded scaffold positioned over a seventh-floor shaft. The scaffold had originally been mobile, but its rear casters were removed and the rear legs were placed directly on a secured plank instead of adjustable or plain bases. The judge held that removing the…
Clarkson Construction Company
Subcontractor dump-truck violation affirmed
A subcontractor's dump truck backed along a highway-construction work area without a reverse alarm or an observer and fatally injured a Clarkson flagman. Clarkson directed where the subcontractor's trucks loaded and unloaded, controlled their operation within the project, and used them in its work…
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…
Southern Railway Company
Nine repair-shop items affirmed
OSHA cited ten conditions at Southern Railway's Spartanburg maintenance and repair facility, including spray-area lighting, welding-fume exposure, sanitation, fixed ladders, scaffolds, and welding-screen protection. The Commission rejected the railroad's claim that Department of Transportation…
Union Pacific Railroad Company
Five repair-shop items affirmed
OSHA cited eight conditions in Union Pacific's Cheyenne machine and wheel shops. The Commission affirmed five items involving missing crane load markings, uncaged access ladders, absent crane inspections, uninspected fire extinguishers, and missing extinguisher maintenance tags, with $295 in…
Illinois Terminal Railroad Company
Floor-opening item affirmed, recordkeeping item vacated
Illinois Terminal left a 10-to-12-foot-deep diesel-shop floor opening guarded only by a thin cloth rope, with reinforcing rods extending upward from the pit. The railroad admitted the condition, and the Commission affirmed the floor-opening violation and its $90 penalty because the Department of…
Union Pacific Railroad Company
Railroad office fire-safety items affirmed
OSHA cited Union Pacific's Pocatello yard office for using unsuitable fire protection around energized equipment, failing to mark exits and misleading doors, and obscuring a carbon-dioxide extinguisher behind a partition. The railroad did not rebut the conditions but argued that Federal Railroad…
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.