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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Eric K. Ho, Ho Ho Ho Express, Inc.; Houston Fruitland, Inc.
Corporations dismissed and $658,000 assessed against Ho
Eric K. Ho hired workers to renovate a former hospital where asbestos-containing material was removed without required controls, respiratory protection, or training. OSHA also cited unsafe sanitation and emergency conditions, failure to report an accident, and a recognized hazard involving an…
LTV Steel Company, Inc.
Fatality-reporting citation vacated
An LTV Steel millwright suffered a fatal heart attack while working outdoors at the company's Cleveland mill. OSHA cited LTV under the then-current rule requiring an employer to report a death from a work-related incident within eight hours. The judge found no evidence that work activity or a…
J.A.M. Builders, Inc.
Willful electrical violation affirmed after fatal power-line contact
J.A.M. Builders was a construction subcontractor placing reinforcing steel for a concrete floor in Miami Beach, Florida. Employees handled rebar up to 20 feet long on a 17-foot-wide deck beneath energized, uninsulated 7,620-volt power lines. One employee died when the rebar he was holding contacted…
TraCorp Construction and its successors
Crane-rope and suspended-load violations affirmed
TraCorp's crew was erecting a building when a hoist cable broke and a falling steel truss killed an employee working beneath it. Judge Stanley M. Schwartz found that TraCorp was the employer because it assigned and paid the crew, supplied most tools, and controlled the work. The wire rope showed…
Victory Memorial Hospital & Skilled Nursing Center
Ethylene-oxide safety violations yield $12,150
Victory Memorial Hospital used ethylene oxide to sterilize instruments in its central sterile supply area. OSHA cited the hospital after finding that the area monitor was not operating, the written emergency plan was incomplete, and several recordkeeping and employee-notification duties were not…
John McCarty, d/b/a Intertribal Trade
Diving citations vacated for lack of employment relationship
Intertribal Trade was a fish-buying business that helped members of the Makah tribe obtain equipment and training for commercial sea-urchin diving. OSHA investigated after a diver died while working from a vessel owned by John McCarty. Applying common-law agency factors, the judge found that…
T & S Utilities, Inc.
Training, ladder, hard-hat, and fatality-reporting violations affirmed
T & S Utilities installed sewage-pump-station lines in Fort Myers, Florida, and employees worked inside manholes at the site. The judge vacated a general duty clause allegation because a specific confined-space training standard covered the condition and the record did not show actual atmospheric…
Trinity Industries, Inc.
Hose items withdrawn, confined-space welding violation remains
OSHA inspected Trinity Industries' railroad-car and tank plant after a welder was fatally injured in an explosion inside a liquid-petroleum-gas tank. The ALJ found that the employee's failure to follow established leak-testing and ventilation procedures was unpreventable misconduct, but he affirmed…
Lancaster Colony Corp., Candle Lite
Fatality-reporting violation affirmed with reduced penalty
A Candle-Lite employee was injured while operating a forklift and died twelve days later from a condition the death certificate attributed to the workplace accident. The company did not report the death to OSHA until an outside recordkeeping review identified the omission several months later. The…
Trumid Construction Co., Inc.
Serious trench-support and hard-hat violations affirmed
A Trumid employee was fatally injured when a trench wall collapsed during pipe-laying work, and the company did not report the accident to OSHA. The ALJ vacated the trench-support item after measuring depth from a bench below the original ground level, but affirmed a hard-hat violation. The…
Puget Sound Tug & Barge; Mission Viking, Inc.; Northwestern Construction, Inc.
Maritime citations affirmed despite Coast Guard authority
Three maritime employers argued that Coast Guard authority displaced OSHA requirements for work on vessels and barges. The cited conditions included respiratory and flotation protection, crane and deck hazards, recordkeeping, unguarded rigging, unsecured propane tanks, and unsafe passage between…
Hampton Pugh, d/b/a Hampton Pugh Company
Fatality-reporting and pump-shutoff violations affirmed
Hampton Pugh Company sold fertilizer and agricultural chemicals in Arkansas. An employee was killed when a customer’s truck rolled backward and pinned him, but the company notified only its insurer and did not report the death to OSHA within 48 hours. A later inspection also found that the remote…
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…
Fort Worth Enterprises, Inc.
Skylight charge vacated and reporting violation affirmed
Fort Worth Enterprises was constructing an office building through subcontractors, with a project manager as its only employee at the site. The project manager died after falling through a skylight opening, and OSHA cited the company for failing to guard or cover the opening and for failing to…
Elmer Vath, Painting Contractor
Lifeline and fatality-reporting violations affirmed
Elmer Vath hired two painters to paint a building cornice from a two-point suspended scaffold and supplied the scaffold materials. One painter fell about 60 feet and died after a supporting beam slipped; he had removed his safety belt shortly before the incident. The judge found that the painter…
Luther Marvin Robbins d/b/a Robbins Painting Service
$900 aluminum-ladder penalty affirmed
Robbins Painting employees used and moved a 28-foot aluminum extension ladder near an energized 7,620-volt power line while painting an apartment building. The ladder contacted the line, and an employee received a fatal electrical shock. The foreman knew how close the power line was to the building…
F.F. Green Construction Co., Inc.
Safety citations affirmed and reporting penalty removed
F.F. Green was laying a water line in Anchorage when a backhoe contacted or came too close to a 115,000-volt transmission line and an employee guiding pipe was electrocuted. The judge affirmed three serious violations involving power-line clearance, spoil piled at the excavation edge, and…
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.