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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Tolar Construction Company
Masonry-wall collapse violation affirmed
Tolar constructed a concrete-block wall approximately 20 to 30 feet high without pilasters and with inadequate temporary bracing. A strong wind collapsed the wall while employees were working nearby, and blocks landed as far as 200 to 300 feet from its base. The Commission affirmed a serious…
Union Railroad Company
Aerial-lift fall-protection violation affirmed
Eight Union Railroad employees used an aerial lift to spray-paint the underside of a bridge about 30 feet above lower surfaces. None wore a body belt with a lanyard attached to the boom or basket, and one employee fell from the basket and died. The railroad stipulated that the condition was likely…
A & W Drill Rentals and Leroy Crandall and Associates
Power-line citations vacated
A & W operated a truck-mounted soil-drilling rig near energized overhead lines while working for Leroy Crandall and Associates. The experienced A & W foreman knew the line was present, but raised the boom into it and an A & W employee handling a guy line was electrocuted. The judge found that A & W…
National Cleaning Contractors, Inc.
Elevator-shaft hazard violation affirmed
A cleaning employee was instructed to use tools to trip an elevator hoistway door's emergency release. He was not warned that the elevator car might be absent, opened the door, stepped into the shaft, and fell 23 feet, sustaining injuries that required hospitalization. The supervisor had taught the…
Chicago Bridge and Iron Company
Fall-protection and scaffold items affirmed
Two employees worked 19 and 29 feet above ground on penetration tubes and unsecured planks without tying off, with exposed reinforcing steel below. The Commission affirmed the serious personal-protective-equipment violation and an increased $850 penalty because supervisors could have discovered the…
Fulton Instrument Company
Mercury-vapor citation reclassified
Fulton manufactured clinical thermometers and exposed employees to mercury-vapor concentrations above the standard's allowable ceiling. The judge upheld the mercury standard as a valid national consensus standard and found the inspection lawful. He reclassified the citation from serious to…
John W. McGrath Corporation
Omitted hard-hat item remained final
McGrath's notice of contest expressly challenged citation items 2 and 3 but omitted item 1, which alleged that longshore employees lacked required protective hats. At the hearing, McGrath said the omission was a typographical error and sought to defend item 1 while withdrawing its contest to the…
Johns Manville Sales Corporation
Housekeeping and fire-protection items affirmed
Johns Manville employees worked on a construction floor containing scrap lumber with protruding nails, combustible debris, and inadequate fire-protection coverage. The judge affirmed one housekeeping item for $30 and held that two additional debris and container allegations merged into that same…
Southern Pacific Transportation Company
Railroad shop items affirmed, recordkeeping item vacated
Southern Pacific Transportation Company operated a railroad shop facility in Houston, Texas. It admitted that it had not displayed the required OSHA poster, maintained the required injury and illness log, kept a monthly signed inspection report for crane hoist attachments, or marked each…
Koppers Co., Inc.
Coke-oven citation dispute remanded for a hearing
OSHA cited Koppers Co., Inc. over employee exposure to coal tar pitch volatiles during coke-oven operations and over respirator protection. The alleged serious violation concerned the absence of feasible engineering or administrative controls and protective measures for a shift foreman and pusher…
Prineville Mouldings, Inc.
Trim-saw citation vacated, floor-opening item affirmed
Prineville Mouldings, Inc. manufactured lineal pine moulding at a plant in Prineville, Oregon. OSHA cited eight unguarded trim saws as hand-fed crosscut table saws, an uncovered floor opening leading to a conveyor, and unguarded power-transmission parts on woodworking machinery. The judge found…
Northeast Stevedoring Co., Inc.
Unsecured-pontoon violations affirmed
Northeast Stevedoring Co., Inc. loaded and unloaded cargo aboard the S/S Hermes and S/S Socrates at a Brooklyn pier. OSHA cited the company for serious violations involving hatch pontoons that were not secured against accidental displacement while employees worked cargo nearby. The judge found that…
Wiley N. Jackson Company and Moore Brothers Company, Inc., a Joint Venture, d/b/a Mojac Company
Flagman-garment violation affirmed
Mojac Company was performing road and bridge construction near Interstate 95 and Glebe Road in Arlington, Virginia. An employee directing traffic around a painters' scaffold was not wearing the required red or orange garment when a backing company truck struck and killed him. The company had…
American Airlines, Inc.
Late notice of contest dismissed
OSHA cited American Airlines, Inc. after an inspection of its aircraft maintenance and engineering center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The contested item alleged that employees working on an aircraft's tail and wing did not use safety belts or other required personal protective equipment. American received…
George V. Hamilton, Inc.
Promptness dismissal reversed for a hearing
OSHA inspected George V. Hamilton, Inc. on December 15, 1972, and issued a serious citation 89 days later. Before holding a hearing, the judge ordered the Secretary to justify the delay under the Act's requirement that citations be issued with reasonable promptness. When the Secretary declined, the…
Scotty Smith Construction Co., Inc.
Crane violation affirmed and saw allegation vacated
Scotty Smith Construction was the general contractor for additions to a YMCA building in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. A company employee was electrocuted while handling a concrete bucket after the boom of a leased crane contacted energized overhead power lines. The judge found that the company chose the…
O'Dell Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Inc.
Serious trenching violations affirmed
O'Dell Plumbing, Heating & Cooling was installing a storm drain at a hospital construction project in Liberty, Missouri. OSHA cited the company after employees worked in an approximately 14-foot-deep trench whose unstable sides were not adequately supported or sloped and whose spoil piles were…
Clarence Martin, d/b/a Martin Masonry Company
Penalties reduced for small masonry contractor
Martin Masonry Company was completing a penthouse on the roof of a six-story building in Oakland, California. The company conceded violations involving an employee working near the roof edge without a safety belt, a masonry-saw operator without goggles, makeshift fasteners on a material hoist, and…
Bechtel Corp.
Citations vacated for lack of employee exposure
Bechtel served as engineer and construction manager at the Trojan Nuclear Plant project in Oregon. OSHA cited housekeeping debris, compressed-gas cylinders without valve caps, and an unguarded recess at the construction site. Other contractors created the cited conditions, and the record did not…
George A. Hormel and Company
Reconsideration denied despite pending variance request
Hormel asked the Commission to reconsider an earlier decision requiring guardrails on the carcass side of a shaving platform. The company argued that it had applied for a variance and that strict compliance would create a greater hazard. The Commission found that Hormel had not proved alternative…
Plessey-Burton, Inc.
Housekeeping and emergency-water violations affirmed
Plessey-Burton cleaned, processed, and electroplated electrical components at a Los Angeles facility. The Commission affirmed a housekeeping violation based on acid spills and disorderly chemical-drum storage that created slipping and tripping hazards. It also affirmed a violation for failing to…
Bouma Post Yards, Inc.
Split mill-safety ruling affirmed with no penalties
Bouma Post Yards operated a small Montana mill that processed logs into fence posts. OSHA cited a broad group of conditions involving tanks, fuel dispensing, defective equipment, industrial trucks, machinery, welding cables, electrical grounding, wire rope, vehicle alarms, and fire extinguishers…
Colorado Fuel & Iron Steel Corp.
Serious hot-roll-line guarding violation affirmed
Colorado Fuel & Iron operated a steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado. Employees worked beside a roll table carrying steel bars heated above 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit at speeds of 15 to 20 miles per hour. The citation alleged that a recorder lacked protection from bars leaving the table and that a crop…
Tech-Steel, Inc.
$30 penalty assessed for obstructed aisles
Tech-Steel fabricated structural steel at a Utah facility. The company admitted that scrap metal, extension cords, welding leads, and hoses obstructed work areas, aisles, and passageways used with overhead cranes. The judge affirmed the violations but vacated the proposed $30 penalty. The…
Murro Chemical Co., Inc.
Conveyor hazard affirmed under general duty clause
Murro Chemical manufactured soap and fatty acids at a Virginia facility. OSHA initially cited an unguarded feed-conveyor worm gear under a machine-guarding standard, then amended the charge at the hearing to the general duty clause because the cited standard did not fit the condition. The judge…
Thorleif Larsen & Son, Inc.
$550 penalty restored for unanchored wall collapse
Thorleif Larsen & Son was the masonry subcontractor building a tall concrete-block wall at an Indianapolis construction site. The wall was left freestanding without being tied to the building's structural steel, and part of it collapsed, killing the company's foreman and seriously injuring three…
H. K. Ferguson Co.
Seven construction violations affirmed and two vacated
H. K. Ferguson was the contractor on a project to expand an Anheuser-Busch facility in Columbus, Ohio. The judge affirmed seven nonserious items involving debris, flammable-liquid storage, smoking warnings, compressed-gas cylinders, elevated runways, and safe access between elevations. He vacated a…
Scientific Coating Co., Inc.
Serious unguarded-scaffold violation affirmed
Scientific Coating employed painters at a power-plant construction project in Newark, New Jersey. An OSHA inspector observed two employees on the top platform of an approximately 18-foot scaffold without guardrails, midrails, or toeboards. The judge found that a fall could have caused serious…
Empire Art Products Co., Inc.
Failure-to-abate penalties reduced to $375
Empire Art Products assembled decorative products at a small New York workplace. A reinspection found that several electrical tools and machines remained ungrounded and that one of two cited exit-sign conditions remained uncorrected. OSHA did not prove that a compressed-air item remained unabated…
Tri-County Constructors, Inc.
Serious excavation violations affirmed with $1,200 penalties
Tri-County Constructors had employees working in deep ground openings at a Pennsylvania state-park project. One trench was about 18 feet deep, with its lower eight feet nearly vertical and without shoring, while another excavation had near-vertical walls, water, and unstable soil. The judge…
American Chimney Corp.
Ladder and scaffold violations affirmed at chimney job
American Chimney performed maintenance work on two chimneys approximately 240 feet high at a Camden, New Jersey facility. Its employees used sectional wooden ladders whose grooved ends lacked the required reinforcement, creating a risk that a rail could split and displace a rung. The company also…
Jack Shelton, d/b/a Jack Shelton Painting Contractor
Sandblasting item reduced to nonserious
Jack Shelton Painting Contractor used a rented sandblaster and a mobile scaffold at an Idaho construction project. The sandblasting nozzle lacked a manual operating valve, so the worker holding it had to signal another employee to shut off the equipment. The judge found a violation but reclassified…
Horne Plumbing & Heating Company
Serious trenching violations affirmed
Horne Plumbing & Heating was installing sewer pipe in a trench at a Georgia church project. A cave-in killed the job foreman and another employee, and the first inspection found undersized shoring in a roughly 17-foot-deep trench and excavated soil stored less than two feet from its edge. A later…
Marino Development Corp.
Trench violation affirmed and penalty reduced to $500
Marino Development was working in a trench in South Easton, Massachusetts. The trench was more than five feet deep in wet, unstable soil and lacked adequate shoring, support, or sloping. One side collapsed and killed the employee working inside, and the other side collapsed shortly afterward. The…
Otis Elevator Co.
Elevator-shaft citation vacated for lack of employee exposure proof
Otis Elevator was installing an elevator at a Colorado Springs bank construction site where a first-floor shaft opening had a seven-foot drop. OSHA cited the company under the floor-opening standard, and the judge amended the charge to the wall-opening standard, found the makeshift scaffold barrier…
F.E. Myers & Brothers Company
Paint-spill violation reduced and conveyor citation vacated
F.E. Myers manufactured pumps and used flammable paints and thinners in its Ohio plant. The judge found a serious violation for inadequate precautions against spills and ignition sources, plus nonserious violations involving a combustible spray-booth floor and an overhead conveyor, and assessed…
Sletten Construction Company
Unused-crane and bulldozer items vacated
Sletten Construction was building a bridge in Idaho and used cranes with damaged wire rope, defective booms, and broken cab glass. The judge also affirmed a canopy citation for a bulldozer used to grade ground and move rocks, plus two recordkeeping items, and assessed $750 in total penalties. The…
Brown-Lane Company
Settlement vacates cylinder items and affirms scaffold penalties
Brown-Lane was constructing additional facilities for an affiliated open-pit clay mining operation in Louisiana. OSHA cited five conditions involving gas cylinders and scaffolding, with proposed penalties of $40 each for the two scaffold items. In a settlement, the Secretary agreed to vacate the…
American Bridge, Division of U.S. Steel Corporation
Tie-off citation vacated under greater-hazard defense
American Bridge employees connected steel beams while moving along roof trusses more than 60 feet above the ground. They wore safety belts but did not tie off while traversing or climbing the trusses, and OSHA cited the company under the personal protective equipment standard with a proposed $650…
St. Paul Feed & Supply, Inc.
Penalty-only contest leaves citations final
St. Paul Feed & Supply received one serious and 17 nonserious citation items at its Oregon agricultural-products facility. Its notice of contest identified only the proposed penalties. The Commission held that this limited notice left the citations and their abatement periods as final orders, so…
Hodgdon Shingle & Shake Company
Serious saw-guarding violation draws $1 penalty
Hodgdon operated a small Oregon shake and shingle mill with five large saws that did not meet OSHA's machine-guarding standard. The company admitted that the violation was serious, but the record showed that all guards known to the industry were already in use and no supplier offered conforming…
Hartwell Excavating Company
Trench citations modified and penalties reduced
Hartwell Excavating was installing a sewer line in an Idaho trench that exceeded five feet in depth and had unsloped sides in sand-and-gravel soil. OSHA also cited excavated material stored at the trench edge, missing exit ladders, a worker positioned beneath part of a backhoe bucket, an incomplete…
Otis Elevator Company
Settlement approved with $545 aggregate penalty
Otis Elevator and the Secretary entered into a settlement agreement, and the company moved to withdraw its notice of contest. The judge initially dismissed the proceeding after finding that the parties had satisfied the Commission's settlement rule. The Commission set aside that dismissal and…
Eastern States Electrical Contractors, Inc.
Withdrawn contest leaves $100 penalty affirmed
Eastern States Electrical Contractors asked to withdraw its notice of contest before the scheduled hearing. The company represented that it had abated the violation, would remain in compliance, and was tendering the proposed $100 penalty. The judge granted the withdrawal, cancelled the hearing, and…
Republic Steel Corporation
Citation withdrawal conditioned on employee notice
Republic Steel contested part of a citation, and the Secretary later moved to withdraw that contested item and its proposed penalty. The judge granted the motion even though the record did not show that affected employees had received notice. The Commission held that a Secretary's withdrawal, like…
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, Wheeling Corrugating Company
Withdrawal conditioned on employee notice
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel contested a citation, and the Secretary later moved to withdraw the nonserious citation and its proposed penalty. The judge granted the motion without a record showing that affected employees had received notice. The Commission held that withdrawal before a hearing would…
Pacific Intermountain Express Company
Withdrawal requires posted employee notice
Pacific Intermountain Express contested one citation allegation, and the Secretary later moved to withdraw item 5 and its proposed penalty. The judge granted the motion even though the record did not show notice to affected employees. The Commission held that granting the withdrawal before a…
Otis Elevator Company
Shared-site fire and cylinder violations partly affirmed
Otis Elevator employees worked at a construction site where fire protection was deficient and compressed-gas cylinders lacked valve caps or were not secured upright. Otis argued that it did not own the cylinders or control the fire equipment. The judge held that an employer remains responsible when…
Bayside Pipe Coaters, Inc.
Subcontractor remains responsible for its trench crew
Bayside Pipe Coaters sent a foreman and two employees to waterproof pipe in a trench excavated by a general contractor. The company admitted that the trench, spoil-pile, and compressed-gas-cylinder conditions violated OSHA standards but argued that its contract made the general contractor solely…
George A. Hormel and Company
Hog-shaving platform guardrail citation affirmed
Hormel employees shaved hair from suspended hog carcasses while standing on a platform 58 inches above the floor. The carcass side of the platform lacked a guardrail, and OSHA issued a nonserious citation without proposing a penalty. The Commission found that gaps of 12 to 18 inches between…
C. N. Flagg & Company, Inc.
Willful trench penalty reduced to $1,000
C. N. Flagg employees installed gas pipe in a six-to-seven-foot trench with vertical walls in soft, unstable soil beside a road carrying traffic. The company had supplied adequate steel trench boxes and required their use, but the welding foreman knowingly chose not to use them after a gas-main…
Kermit L. Stepter d/b/a Stepter Brothers Lathing
Scaffold violations affirmed with $350 penalties
Stepter Brothers used a wooden scaffold at an Arizona apartment project where an employee worked 24 feet above the ground without required guardrails. The scaffold also had deficient footings, damaged members, unsecured planks, missing ledgers and bracing, and gaps between platform planks. The…
B & K Paving Company
Serious ungrounded-pump violation affirmed
B & K Paving used an electric water pump in a creek to control smoke from an asphalt batch plant. An employee entered the creek to inspect the pump intake, encountered electrical current in the water, collapsed, and later died. The pump was not grounded even though grounding leads had been…
Eastwind, Inc.
Serious trench penalties reduced to $600 total
Eastwind employees worked in a seven-foot trench with vertical walls in wet, unstable soil while excavated and backfill material was piled at the edges. Part of a trench wall collapsed and partially buried two employees, who survived. Eastwind admitted serious violations for failing to support the…
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…
Sinaiko Brothers Company
Shear-guarding settlement approved with $50 penalty
OSHA cited Sinaiko Brothers for failing to provide a point-of-operation guard on a Milwaukee alligator shear. The company contested that item, then entered a settlement extending the abatement date to April 1, 1974 and agreeing to withdraw its contest and pay the proposed $50 penalty. The judge…
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…
Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
One noise-exposure item affirmed without penalty
OSHA cited four instances in which Sun Ship employees worked without hearing protection in high-noise shipyard operations. In the boiler shop, repeated spot readings exceeded 115 dBA and other evidence showed that an employee had operated near continuous chipping tools for more than the permitted…
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.