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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Pooler Enterprises
Excavation cave-in citation vacated for lack of exposure proof
Pooler Enterprises performed utility and site work at a construction project in Penfield, New York. OSHA amended its original citation to allege that Pooler failed to protect employees from cave-ins in an excavation measuring more than six feet deep, with a proposed penalty of $4,662. The judge…
Montroy Development LLC
Excavation safety violations affirmed
Montroy Development was working in an excavation in Camillus, New York, when an OSHA compliance officer saw two people inside and directed them to exit. OSHA cited Montroy because a spoil pile and excavator were within two feet of the edge and because an employee worked in an excavation more than…
Arrow Plumbing, LLC
Three excavation violations affirmed, spoil-pile item vacated
Arrow Plumbing replaced a residential sewer line in Grain Valley, Missouri, using an excavation more than nine feet deep. Its owner and project supervisor worked inside without hard hats, with exposed utilities and a near-vertical wall but no trench box or other cave-in protection. The judge…
Texas Underground Utilities, Inc.
Repeat cave-in violation affirmed, two items vacated
OSHA found two Texas Underground Utilities employees working in a trench at a construction site in Houston. The judge affirmed a repeat-serious cave-in-protection violation because the trench reached seven feet in Type B soil and was not properly sloped, benched, or protected by a trench box. A…
A-1 Sewer and Water Contractors, Inc.
Trench citation vacated for unreliable depth proof
A-1 Sewer and Water Contractors was installing a water line in a trench at a residential worksite in Illinois. OSHA alleged that an employee worked in a trench approximately 5.6 feet deep without a cave-in protective system and proposed a $1,985 penalty. The judge found that OSHA did not reliably…
J.D. Abrams, L.P.
Trench and ladder violations affirmed
J.D. Abrams was installing a waterline at a highway construction project in Austin, Texas. OSHA found an employee working in an unprotected trench measured at more than five feet deep and using a ladder that extended only two feet eight inches above the landing surface. The judge found that the…
A-1 Sewer and Water Construction, Inc.
Trenching case remanded for a hearing
OSHA cited A-1 Sewer and Water for allegedly allowing an employee to work in an excavation without a protective system and proposed a $1,990 penalty. In Simplified Proceedings, the judge permitted the Secretary to seek summary judgment and then affirmed the citation without holding the hearing…
Petrongolo Contractors, Inc.
Repeat cave-in protection item affirmed
Petrongolo Contractors excavated a roughly 10-foot-deep street trench to replace a sewer manhole. OSHA cited the company for allegedly failing to classify the soil when designing timber shoring and for allowing employees to work in the trench before an adequate protective system was installed. The…
Tom Kubricky Company, Inc.
Trench egress and cave-in violations affirmed
Tom Kubricky Company excavated more than 20 feet below a residential street to repair a broken sewer force main. Two employees worked in a lower trench without a stairway, ladder, or other reliably safe emergency exit. The judge found the earthen end slopes unsafe because they were soft, irregular…
Reyes Construction, Inc.
Four trench-protection violations affirmed
Reyes Construction excavated around a leaking water pipe in an eight-foot-deep trench with vertical walls and Type B or C soil. One trench box had an open end next to a vertical soil wall and large gaps that allowed hazardous movement, while another lacked protection along the bottom four and…
Angel Brothers Enterprises, Ltd.
Willful cave-in protection violation affirmed
Angel Brothers installed drainage pipe in Type C soil and initially protected workers by benching the excavation walls. A safety manager told the foreman that a trench box would be required the next day because the work was approaching an intersection. The foreman knowingly allowed an employee to…
DeNucci Constructors, LLC
Cave-in protection violation affirmed after training item withdrawn
Two DeNucci Constructors employees entered an eight-to-nine-foot-deep trench to hand dig around existing pipes. The Type B soil trench had vertical side walls, inadequate partial benching at one end, no benching at the other, and no trench box. The superintendent and foreman saw the employees…
Speedy Rooter/Capital Plumbing, Inc.
Trench violations affirmed
Speedy Rooter replaced a residential sewer line using a trench more than six feet deep. The judge found that the two workers were company employees, not independent contractors, because Speedy Rooter obtained and assigned the work, paid them by the hour, and supplied tools and permits. OSHA proved…
Casale Construction Services, Inc., d/b/a Casale
Repeat trench violations affirmed
Casale Construction installed a pipeline using a trench about six feet deep near an active roadway. A foreman directed a laborer to work for up to three hours in the trench without cave-in protection while excavated material remained at the trench edge. The judge rejected the company's…
Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
Controlling-employer trench citation affirmed on remand
This supplemental decision followed a Fifth Circuit ruling that OSHA may cite controlling employers at multi-employer worksites for standards violations. Applying that ruling and the judge's earlier findings, the trench-protection citation against Hensel Phelps was affirmed. The item was…
Florida Gas Contractors, Inc.
Three excavation violations affirmed
Florida Gas employees dug a trench beneath an adjacent concrete structure while installing a gas line. The Commission held that the structure was appurtenant to the sidewalk and that undermining it without support violated the standard without separate proof that collapse was likely. The Commission…
SJ Louis Construction of Texas LTD
Trench egress and cave-in violations affirmed
SJ Louis employees worked in a deep utility trench without a ladder, stairway, ramp, or other safe means of exit. The judge found that the improvised path required employees to climb multiple surfaces near an excavator parked at the trench edge and did not qualify as safe egress. The trench also…
Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
Case remanded after Fifth Circuit reversal
An administrative law judge had vacated a willful citation against Hensel Phelps Construction Co. The Fifth Circuit reversed that decision and returned the case to the Commission. The Commission remanded the case to the judge for further proceedings consistent with the court's opinion.
T. E. Stevens Company, Inc.
Trench cave-in item affirmed
T. E. Stevens Company installed drain lines in a blasted and excavated trench at a grocery-store construction project. Testing classified the disturbed soil as Type B, and OSHA measured the trench at seven feet four inches deep and fourteen feet wide where two employees were working. The resulting…
Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
Original controlling-employer trench citation vacated
Hensel Phelps was the general contractor for an Austin library project where a subcontractor's employees worked beside an unprotected excavation wall more than 12 feet deep. The stipulated record established the trench violation, Hensel Phelps's control over site safety, its knowledge of the…
Yantis Company
Repeat trench citation vacated for unforeseeable misconduct
A Yantis Company crew installed a sewer line in San Antonio using a trench about 9 to 10 feet deep with vertical, unprotected walls. OSHA observed an employee and later the crew foreman entering the trench without shoring, sloping, or another cave-in protection system. The judge found that OSHA…
K.M. Davis Contracting, Inc.
Cave-in citation remains serious after split vote
K.M. Davis Contracting installed an underground water line beside a highway, where OSHA found an employee working in a deep excavation without cave-in protection. OSHA alleged a willful violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(a)(1) and proposed a $53,900 penalty. The judge affirmed the violation but…
Briones Utility Company
Trench cave-in citation reinstated with reduced penalty
Briones Utility Company used hydraulic shoring while employees exposed underground utility lines in a seven-foot-deep trench. The judge vacated OSHA's cave-in protection citation after finding that employee exposure was not proven and that entering the trench was necessary to install another shore…
Jim Boyd Construction, Inc.
Trench violation reclassified as willful
Jim Boyd Construction used trench shields that did not extend above vertical trench walls and did not slope the soil above the shields as required by 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(a)(1). The superintendent knew the requirement, considered stacking the shields, and chose not to comply because he believed…
United Contractors Midwest, Inc. d/b/a R.A. Cullinan & Son
Willful trench citation left affirmed after split vote
United Contractors Midwest employees worked in a seven-to-eight-foot-deep excavation whose Type B soil walls were not properly sloped or benched. The judge affirmed a willful violation of 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(a)(1) and rejected the company's unpreventable employee misconduct defense. The Commission…
Triumph Construction Corp.
Repeat cave-in violation affirmed and loose-soil item vacated
Triumph Construction replaced a water main in lower Manhattan using an excavation without a cave-in protective system. An employee was injured when part of the excavation collapsed. The judge found that the excavation was at least five feet deep where the employee worked, so the shallow-excavation…
Pan Oceanic Engineering Co., Inc.
Willful trench violation affirmed and other items vacated
Pan Oceanic Engineering performed underground sewer repair work in Chicago. An employee entered an approximately 8-foot-10-inch trench without cave-in protection even though hydraulic shoring was beside the trench, and the company had five prior final citations involving the same cave-in protection…
Turpin, Inc.
Unprotected excavation violation reduced from willful to serious
A newly hired Turpin employee entered an 8.7-foot excavation in unstable soil to mark grade points before a trench box was installed. The judge found constructive employer knowledge because Turpin rarely inspected jobsites, inadequately trained workers, and showed no credible system for monitoring…
Stark Excavating, Inc.
One cave-in item held willful, another serious, and eyewear item vacated
OSHA cited Stark Excavating after finding unprotected excavations at two Illinois worksites, improper eyewear at one site, and spoil piles too close to an excavation. The Commission affirmed the Champaign cave-in item as serious because the competent person made an incorrect but not consciously…
Bardav, Inc., d/b/a Martha's Vineyard Mobile Home Park
Willful cave-in violation affirmed after excavation collapse
Bardav employees entered an excavation to repair a leaking water pipe after a plumbing technician warned that the unstable soil required shoring. Water flooded the excavation, its walls collapsed, and two employees were injured. The Commission affirmed a willful cave-in protection violation because…
E.R. Zeiler Excavating, Inc.
Trench violations affirmed as serious, not willful
E.R. Zeiler Excavating had four employees working in an approximately 10-foot-deep trench without an adequate cave-in protection system or safe means of exit. The violations were not disputed on review, but the Secretary sought willful classifications based on the company's prior excavation…
KSP Enterprises, Inc.
Willful excavation violation affirmed
KSP Enterprises had workers in a 6.7-foot-deep excavation with nearly vertical Type B soil walls and no cave-in protection. The company argued that it was a family business without employees, but the judge found that a working co-owner was an employee and that another worker was also an employee…
PM Construction & Rehab, LLC
Trench citation reduced from repeat to serious
PM Construction & Rehab was repairing sewer pipes in Houston when an employee working in an 8- to 9-foot-deep trench was seriously injured by a rock that broke from an unprotected end wall. The company had installed hydraulic shoring along the trench's long walls but had not shored, sloped, or…
M.V.P. Piping Co., Inc.
Willful trench penalty increased to $22,000
M.V.P. Piping sent two employees into a 6-foot-4-inch-deep excavation with vertical walls and no cave-in protection. The company used gravel backfill, an exit ramp, and spotters as a temporary safety plan, but none of those measures could prevent a potentially fatal collapse. The Commission held…
Jim Boyd Construction, Inc.
Excavation case remanded under ComTran knowledge rule
Jim Boyd Construction installed trench shields for a Georgia natural-gas project where another contractor's employees worked in the excavation. An administrative law judge vacated two shield items, affirmed a lateral-movement item as serious, and reduced a cave-in protection item from willful to…
ComTran Group, Inc.
Trench case remanded after supervisor-knowledge ruling
ComTran's project manager entered a 6-foot-deep excavation without cave-in protection after placing a 5-foot spoil pile at its edge. An administrative law judge affirmed serious excavation and spoil-pile violations by imputing the project manager's knowledge of his own conduct to the company. The…
Penney's Construction Company, LLC
Willful trench violations affirmed after work continued
Penney's Construction replaced a sewer line in a 10-foot-deep trench with vertical, fissured walls and no cave-in protection. Employees also encountered flowing sewage, possible atmospheric hazards, an edge-side spoil pile, unprotected use of a cut saw, and public traffic without high-visibility…
Sunland Construction, Inc.
Trench egress item affirmed and cave-in item vacated
Sunland Construction employees installed sandbag trench breaks around a high-pressure gas pipeline. They worked in a trench more than five feet deep without a ladder, stairway, or ramp, and Sunland did not show that climbing over the pipe and sandbags provided safe egress. The judge affirmed the…
Digco Utility Construction
Repeat excavation items vacated
Digco excavated to locate a gas line when an OSHA officer saw the top of a worker's hard hat from the road. By the time the officer reached the site, the foreman had deepened the excavation to 6½ feet, but no employee was inside it. The judge credited testimony that the worker had entered only…
Brocato Construction, Inc.
Trench citations affirmed by default
OSHA cited Brocato Construction at two Mississippi worksites for employees working in excavations without cave-in protection and, at one site, without safe egress. The company timely contested but did not answer discovery, attend scheduled conferences, respond to orders, claim certified mail, or…
Hubbard Construction
Repeat trench cave-in item affirmed
Hubbard Construction installed storm-water pipe in a trench beside a heavily traveled highway. After the crew encountered a utility line, the foreman removed the trench box and directed two employees to work for several minutes in a six-foot-deep Type C excavation with slopes steeper than…
Mike Neri Sewer & Water Contractor
Trench violations affirmed with $5,000 penalty
Mike Neri Sewer & Water Contractor excavated a trench for water and sewer work. An employee entered the 5.6-foot-deep trench without a ladder, cave-in protection, or the required setback between the spoil pile and trench edge. The judge credited the compliance officer's testimony and photographs…
Redline Pipeline, LLC
Trench items affirmed, water and asbestos items vacated
Redline Pipeline was the general contractor for replacement of water lines that likely contained asbestos. Two subcontractor employees entered a roughly 9-to-10-foot-deep trench after its protective box had been removed, although the previously disturbed Type B soil was not properly sloped. The…
Bolton Fencing and Construction, LLC
Trench items reduced from willful to serious
Bolton supported oil and gas pipeline work in Colorado and sent two employees into an unprotected excavation with walls between 5 and 8 feet high. The soil was Type B, no sloping, shoring, or trench box was used, and the competent person left the site after directing the employees into the…
American Engineering & Development Corp.
Trench citation vacated for employee misconduct
American Engineering & Development was replacing underground utilities in Miami when OSHA found two employees in an excavation more than 5 feet deep without cave-in protection. A backhoe operator temporarily directing the workers had sent them into the trench after the superintendent expressly…
Rock Utility, Inc.
Trench and ladder items affirmed, vest item vacated
Rock Utility was installing a water line in Quincy, Massachusetts, when OSHA inspected a trench that reached 6.3 feet deep. An employee worked in the deeper end of the Type C soil trench without sloping, benching, or a trench box. The judge also found that the company's informal safety discussions…
Straight Ahead Construction, Inc.
Excavation water and cave-in items vacated
Straight Ahead Construction dug a street excavation in Miami to install drainage structures during intermittent rain. OSHA alleged that employees worked in accumulated water and lacked cave-in protection in an excavation more than 5 feet deep. The judge found no reliable measurement showing that…
Northern Excavating Co., Inc.
Willful cave-in violations affirmed, training and egress items vacated
Northern Excavating employees worked in a Type C soil excavation that ranged from about 7.5 to 12 feet deep without a trench box, shoring, or adequate sloping. The excavation used prohibited benching, had soil sloughing into it, and sat beside a heavily traveled access road where truck vibrations…
Kilby & Gannon Construction Services, LLC
Willful trenching violations affirmed
Kilby & Gannon employees installed drainage pipe in a type-C-soil trench at a parking-garage project. Two workers entered the trench even though it was more than five feet deep, lacked a trench box or adequate sloping, and had no safe egress point within 25 feet. The foreman knew the excavation…
Daisy Construction Company
Willful trench violations affirmed
Daisy Construction was installing underground conduit during a road project when employees worked for hours in a trench more than seven feet deep with vertical walls and no cave-in protection. The foreman and the acting superintendent both saw the work, knew trench protection was required, and did…
Eutaw Construction Company, Inc.
Controlling-employer trench citation affirmed
Eutaw Construction was the general contractor for a sewer-line project where a subcontractor worked in a 14-foot-deep bore pit. The excavation was dug in unstable Type C soil, and its protective system had trench boxes several feet above the bottom, gaps, a damaged support, water seepage, erosion…
Sand Cut Properties, LLC.
Willful excavation violations affirmed
Sand Cut Properties sent an employee into an excavation that was 6 to 9 feet deep, accumulating water, and repeatedly collapsing in unstable soil. A roughly 15-foot-high spoil pile overhung the edge, and the owner directed the employee to attach a sling to a concrete structure before the collapsing…
B & B Underground Contractors
Excavation and gas-cylinder violations yield $8,000 penalty
B & B Underground Contractors operated a deep boring pit for a wastewater pipeline project in Alabama. The judge affirmed a serious violation for unsecured gas cylinders and found that the pit's only ramp was unsafe and more than 25 feet from employees' work area. Water was accumulating in the pit…
Archon Construction
Unprotected trench violation affirmed as repeat
Two Archon employees entered a six-foot-deep trench with steep walls and no cave-in protection to cut an existing sewer pipe. The judge found that the foreman knew the trench's physical condition, even though he mistakenly believed it was less than five feet deep. That mistaken belief prevented a…
DeWitt Excavating, Inc.
Willful unprotected-trench violation affirmed
Three DeWitt Excavating employees worked in an eight-foot-deep Type C soil excavation with nearly vertical walls and no cave-in protection. The foreman knew protection was required but proceeded without using one of the company's available trench boxes. The judge rejected DeWitt's…
Shawn Telsi, d/b/a Life Time Homes, Green Pines, and/or Telsi Builders
Excavation violations affirmed with $91,200 penalty
Telsi controlled a temple-construction site where subcontractor employees worked in a deep excavation with vertical walls, large spoil piles at the edges, no nearby safe egress, uncovered holes, defective ladders, and uncapped rebar. The judge found Telsi was both the controlling and creating…
Flanagan Contracting, LLC
Unprotected excavation violation affirmed
Flanagan Contracting opened an excavation to connect a sewer line at a residential construction site. Its foreman worked for thirty to forty minutes in the approximately eight-foot-deep excavation without a trench shield or adequate sloping. The judge found that the excavation was in previously…
ASM-Sanders, Inc.
Trench violations affirmed and pipe-testing item vacated
A subcontractor's worker was killed when a PVC pipe exploded during compressed-air leak testing at an Air Force base construction project. The judge vacated the general duty clause item because ASM-Sanders' superintendent had explicitly delayed testing until the next day and did not know the…
MVM Contracting, Corp.
Excavation violation restored to willful
MVM employees performed masonry work in an excavation deeper than five feet without cave-in protection. The judge affirmed the violation as serious, but the Commission found it willful. An OSHA compliance officer had explained the excavation requirements to MVM's superintendent, yet work continued…
Mosser Construction, Inc.
Excavation violation reclassified as serious
Mosser employees worked in a 6-foot, 6-inch excavation whose benching did not meet the required dimensions. The judge affirmed the protective-system violation as other-than-serious and assessed $500, reasoning that Mosser had substantially attempted to bench the excavation. The Commission found…
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.