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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All American Concrete, Inc.
One excavation citation vacated and one affirmed as serious
All American Concrete was upgrading a storm-water system when an excavator bucket rolled into an excavation and broke an employee's ankle. OSHA cited the contractor for materials or equipment near the excavation edge and for inadequate cave-in protection. The judge vacated the falling-materials…
Teichert Construction
Truck inspection and trench-protection violations affirmed
A backing dump-truck fatality prompted OSHA to inspect Teichert's water-pipeline construction project. The judge found that the truck driver did not complete the required pre-shift vehicle check and that one brake push rod was out of adjustment when the truck was placed in service. He also found…
Schaer Development of Central Florida
Improper excavation slope affirmed
Schaer Development installed a manhole in a Florida excavation that reached about 14 feet deep near a highway. OSHA cited spoil piles and a track hoe located within two feet of the edge, but the judge vacated that item because the Secretary did not prove the material or equipment could fall or roll…
Andrew Catapano Enterprises, Inc.
Separate trench citations largely upheld
OSHA issued nine sets of citations covering 98 alleged violations at separate water-main trench worksites along Eighth Avenue in New York City. The Commission held that the Secretary could inspect and cite the separate worksites independently because correcting a condition in one trench did not…
Andrew Catapano Enterprises, Inc.
Willful trench violation affirmed and penalty increased
Andrew Catapano Enterprises allowed an employee to work in an unprotected trench dug in unstable or soft material in New York. The Commission upheld the judge's factual and credibility findings and affirmed the violation as willful. It rejected the company's notice argument because the Secretary's…
Woolston Construction Co. Inc.
Unprotected landfill trench violation was willful
Woolston Construction excavated a trench for a methane gas venting system at a New Jersey landfill. A cave-in killed a Woolston employee and an employee of another subcontractor after the nearly vertical trench walls collapsed. The trench had cracks, sloughing material, prior collapses, and a bowed…
Bland Construction Company
Trenching violations affirmed, willful classifications reversed
Bland Construction Company was cited after OSHA inspected an Austin, Texas, worksite where a trench wall collapsed and killed an employee. The Commission affirmed violations involving an unstable bedrock trench and a separate soil trench under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(b). It found that Bland could have…
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…
Calang Corporation
Willful trench violations affirmed with $8,000 penalty
Calang employees and the company president worked in a roughly nine-foot-deep sewer trench with sandy soil, inadequate sloping, no shoring, and a spoil pile at the trench edge. Before excavation began, the OSHA inspector told the president that the trench needed approximately one-to-one sloping or…
Zunker Contractors, Inc.
Commission impasse leaves $1,000 trench ruling in place
Zunker was installing sewer pipe in an approximately 11-foot-deep trench when a side collapsed, burying and seriously injuring an employee. The ALJ credited rescue personnel, city employees, and the Secretary's soil expert, finding that the trench was nearly vertical, dug in unstable soil, and…
Lowe Construction Company
Trench ladder citation vacated under specific egress standard
Lowe employees used a ladder to climb the vertical lower portion of a deep trench, then stepped off and walked up the sloped wall. OSHA cited the general construction ladder rule because the ladder ended 6 to 8 feet below ground level instead of extending three feet above the landing. The…
Burlington Northern Railroad Company
Fatal trench case remanded for the railroad agency's views
A trench beside Burlington Northern's tracks collapsed while employees installed a sewer line, killing one employee. The judge affirmed several serious trenching items, but Burlington Northern argued that Federal Railroad Administration regulation displaced OSHA's authority. The Commission found…
John R. Jurgensen Company
Repeated trenching violation affirmed
Jurgensen was installing a drain line beside an older pipeline when part of an unshored trench wall collapsed on an employee. The Commission found the wall unstable because the new trench intersected backfill and gravel from the earlier excavation, and Jurgensen did not prove that the old fill had…
B.G. Danis Company
Trench-sloping citation remains vacated
B.G. Danis employees installed pipe in a roughly nine-foot-deep trench dug through a mixture of sand, gravel, silt, and clay. OSHA alleged a willful violation because the trench walls were not sloped adequately for soft or unstable soil. The judge vacated the citation based on soil testing, expert…
Capital City Excavating
Willful trenching case remanded for penalty
The Sixth Circuit held that Capital City Excavating willfully violated the trenching standard at section 1926.652(b) and returned the case to the Commission to assess an appropriate civil penalty. The Commission in turn remanded the matter to the chief judge for reassignment because the original…
Atec Contracting Corporation
Excavation items settled as nonserious
Atec was originally cited for three serious excavation and trenching violations with $1,440 proposed. The judge vacated the section 1926.652(b) item, affirmed the other two, and assessed $960. While review of the affirmed items was pending, Atec agreed to withdraw its petition and maintain…
Edward Kelly & Sons, Inc.
Layered-soil trench citation vacated
Edward Kelly & Sons sloped the upper seven feet of soft soil in a twelve-foot trench but left the bottom five feet of hard, compact clay vertical. The Commission read the soft-soil trenching rule together with the rule for hard or compact soil. Because the trench wall had distinct layers and the…
National Industrial Constructors, Inc.
Power-plant construction violations resolved
The Commission reviewed numerous fall-protection, trenching, machine, electrical, scaffold, ladder, fire-extinguisher, and equipment-alarm items from construction of a Nebraska power plant. It rejected dismissal for delayed citation issuance because the employer did not prove prejudice. It held…
Joseph J. Stolar Construction Company, Inc.
Serious trenching violation affirmed
Joseph J. Stolar Construction was installing underground pipe when a trench wall collapsed and fatally buried one employee. A 25-foot segment contained a significant band of wet, pumpy soil, but employees worked in the trench without shoring and without sloping from the bottom. The Commission held…
Wright and Lopez, Inc.
Repeated-serious trenching violation affirmed
Wright and Lopez was installing utility cable when a roughly 10-foot-deep trench in unstable soil collapsed and buried an employee to his shoulders without causing serious injury. The trench had vertical walls and incomplete shoring that did not extend to the bottom. The Commission held that the…
Communications, Inc.
Trench violations deemed repeated and willful
Communications, a utility contractor, had two employees working in a trench about 6 feet 2 inches deep with unsupported vertical walls and excavated soil stored within 2 feet of the edge. The Commission affirmed violations of the trench-support standard and the spoil-pile setback standard because…
Shaw Construction, Inc.
Serious trench-shoring violation affirmed
This decision followed a Fifth Circuit remand requiring two Commission members to agree on the trench-shoring citation rather than leaving the judge's ruling in place through an evenly divided vote. Shaw's trench was about nine feet deep, with six to seven feet cut through limestone and the upper…
Cagle Construction Co.
Trench citation vacatur affirmed
The judge vacated a trench citation after finding that the Secretary did not prove noncompliance with either 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(c), as cited, or § 1926.652(b), as alleged in the complaint. The Secretary sought review of a legal conclusion and several statements about government counsel's conduct…
Advance Pipeline, Inc.
Trench violations and $1,080 penalties affirmed
Advance Pipeline installed a water main in soft, unstable soil without shoring, sloping, bracing, or other support. Testimony established that an employee worked in a trench section about seven feet deep, and the Commission noted that the standard applied at five feet or more. It also affirmed…
Frank Irey, Jr., Inc.
Trench violation reduced from willful to serious
An employee was killed when the side of an unshored, unsloped trench collapsed during underground electrical-conduit work. The trench was about 7.5 feet deep in soft, unstable soil. The company knew trench-protection requirements and a state inspector had recently stopped work at a nearby trench…
Capaldi Brothers Corporation
Trench citation remained vacated after amendment split
OSHA cited Capaldi Brothers under the trench rule for soft or unstable soil. The judge found that OSHA had not proved that soil condition, vacated the citation, and denied a posthearing request to amend to the rule for hard or compact soil. Chairman Cleary would allow the amendment and found the…
Able Contractors, Inc.
Trench and seat-belt issues remanded
Able Contractors was replacing a sewer line in a 12-foot-deep, unshored trench in Billings, Montana. The judge found a serious trench violation but rejected OSHA's willful characterization, and also affirmed a citation because earthmoving-equipment operators did not use the provided seat belts. The…
R. Colwill Excavating Company
Trench violation affirmed, penalty reduced
R. Colwill Excavating was removing a buried gasoline tank from a nine-foot-deep trench in unstable soil. The trench was not shored, sloped, or otherwise supported. The judge found that two workers entered without authorization, but affirmed the citation because the company's foreman and…
Roberts & Thompson Co.
Trench citation vacation left undisturbed
A judge vacated a serious trench citation because OSHA had not proved that the soil was unstable or soft. During Commission review, two photographs that were important to the judge's soil finding could not be located. The Commission held that it could not fairly evaluate the decision without the…
Terra Motus Co., Inc.
Trench citation amended and affirmed
Two Terra Motus employees were laying pipe in a trench that was nearly ten feet deep and cut through soil consisting of 99.4 percent sand. The judge found the walls unstable and inadequately sloped but vacated because OSHA had cited an excavation standard rather than the applicable trench standard…
Broshear Contractors, Inc.
Commission requires a trench exit whenever employees are inside
Broshear Contractors employees were working under supervision in a trench at least four feet deep. A ladder was lying beside the trench, but no ladder or equivalent exit was available inside until the OSHA inspector identified the violation. The company argued that the ladder had been removed only…
Craig D. Lawrenz & Associates, Inc.
Three trenching violations and $330 penalty affirmed
Craig D. Lawrenz & Associates installed water and sewer systems and was inspected at two trenching locations along a Wisconsin highway. The judge found that excavated material was not set back or retained from a water-pipe trench, the sides of that trench were inadequately supported or sloped in…
Navarro Contracting Company
Serious excavation charges vacated, spoil-bank and exit items affirmed
Navarro Contracting was installing a large sewer pipe in a deep excavation and adjoining trench at a Fort Worth shopping-center project. OSHA alleged unstable walls, inadequate precautions near backfill, insufficient trench protection, heavy-equipment loading, a spoil bank too close to the edge…
Clifford Olsen and Melvin Olsen, a partnership doing business as Olsen Excavating
Serious trench citation affirmed with penalty reduced to $100
Olsen Excavating was installing storm-sewer pipe in a Boise trench with one employee and one of the two owning partners working at the bottom. The trench was more than 12 feet deep, only about three feet wide at the bottom, cut in sandy soil, and nearly vertical with tension cracks and minimal…
Brown & Root, Inc.
Trenching citations vacated for lack of proof
OSHA cited Brown & Root after inspecting an underground utility project where employees were installing pipe in a trench. The citations alleged that the trench lacked an adequate exit and that its sides were not properly supported or sloped. The judge found that employees could reach an ascendable…
Environmental Utilities Corp.
Trench violation reclassified as serious
Environmental Utilities installed sewer pipe in trenches in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Two employees remained in the Marietta Pike trench after two of three trench jacks were removed, leaving the trench inadequately protected from a cave-in. The Commission changed the judge's classification from…
Stimson Contracting Co.
Three trench items affirmed and duplicate item vacated
Stimson Contracting employees installed sewer pipe in a trench that was 17 feet deep and four feet wide at the bottom. The company placed excavated material too close to the edge, did not provide an adequate exit, and left a crawler crane above and near the trench without additional shoring or…
Quillian Pipe Company, Inc.
Trench violation reduced from willful to serious
Quillian Pipe employees worked in an inadequately protected trench that was more than five feet deep while installing underground pipeline in Macon, Georgia. OSHA had recently explained trenching requirements to the company's president after an earlier inspection, then cited the later condition as…
Floyd S. Pike Electrical Contractors, Inc.
Trench-shoring violation affirmed during installation
Floyd S. Pike Electrical Contractors was opening a trench in soft soil for electrical-power ducts in Augusta, Georgia. Two employees installing shoring stepped about two feet beyond the protected area, and a cave-in killed working foreman Frank Riddle, Sr. The judge vacated the citation on the…
Don Helvig, d/b/a Don Helvig Excavating
Trench protection and exit violations affirmed with reduced penalty
Don Helvig Excavating was digging a sewer trench in a North Dakota mobile-home park. The trench was about seven feet deep in soft or average soil, with the lowest three to four feet nearly vertical, inadequate sloping above, and no shoring or bracing. Although the soil was dry and collapse was not…
Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric Company
Contested trenching items vacated
The utility’s employees worked in an 8-to-10-foot-deep trench protected by plywood sheeting, hydraulic jacks, and sloped upper walls. OSHA alleged inadequate support in soft or unstable soil, insufficient close sheeting, and a need for additional bracing because a parked backhoe was near one end…
Par Construction Company, Inc.
Unsupported trench violations affirmed
Three Par Construction employees worked in a trench that was more than five feet deep and dug in loose, unstable soil. The trench had not been shored, braced, sloped, or otherwise supported, and the company had not provided an adequate exit. The judge affirmed a serious trench-support violation…
Gordon Construction Company
Excavation case remanded after employer-status ruling
Gordon Construction supplied a backhoe operator and two laborers to the North Little Rock Sewer Department for a sewer-line excavation through solid rock. The administrative law judge vacated the citations after finding that the municipal department, rather than Gordon, employed the workers. The…
Harrington Construction Corporation
Excluded soil testimony requires remand
Two Harrington employees worked in an unshored trench that was about 30 feet long, 30 inches wide, and between 6 and 6.5 feet deep. The judge excluded a compliance officer's observations that the soil was sticky, soft, wet, sandy, clay-like, and partly backfill because the officer was not qualified…
CTM, Inc.
Combined trench and spoil-pile violation affirmed
CTM excavated a 13-foot-deep sewer trench in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, without shoring and with nearly vertical lower walls in soil of average stability. A ten-foot-high spoil pile containing large soil chunks sat three feet from the trench, where employees were working below. The Commission held…
Jack Conie & Sons Corporation
Trench citation vacated for issuance delay
An employee worked in a 14-foot-deep trench dug in soft material without the sloping required by the trench standard. OSHA inspected on October 11, 1973, but did not issue the citation until 125 days later because the area director repeatedly sought approval to characterize the violation as…
Anchor Construction Co.
Amended trench citation affirmed with a $400 penalty
Anchor Construction employees worked in an 11-foot-deep trench dug in clay soil with water entering it. Evidence showed sloughing at the bottom, a cracked wall, and soil that would not support weight without extra protection. The Commission allowed the Secretary to replace the originally cited…
Paul Hutchinson & Sons
Pneumatic-tool and trench citations vacated
Paul Hutchinson & Sons was the general contractor on a sewer-line excavation where subcontractor employees drilled rock in a trench. The subcontractor's pneumatic tool lacked the required positive connection to its hose, but the Commission found that Hutchinson neither created nor controlled that…
J. D. Blum Construction Company
Serious trench citation reinstated
J. D. Blum Construction excavated a water-main trench that was up to 7.5 feet deep, contained wet clay and loam, and was sloped at about 65 degrees without shoring or bracing. The Commission found the soil soft and unstable based on water seepage, sloughing, photographs, and witness testimony. It…
Hartwell Excavating Co.
Repeated trench citation vacated
Hartwell Excavating was cited for a repeated violation involving a sewer trench up to 14.5 feet deep and received a proposed $1,800 penalty. The Secretary later abandoned the repeated classification because the earlier citation had not yet become final and attempted to proceed instead on a…
W. L. Cobb Construction Co.
Excavation citations reduced to two nonserious violations
W. L. Cobb installed storm-drain pipe in an opening that was wider than it was deep and therefore qualified as an excavation rather than a trench. The judge vacated the trench-specific ladder and unstable-soil citations, including two proposed willful penalties totaling $6,615. He affirmed a…
W. N. Couch Construction Company
Trench-protection violations affirmed
W. N. Couch Construction had employees working in an 11-foot-deep trench whose wall included at least 4 1/2 feet of unstable backfill. The trench was also next to backfilled excavations, a heavily traveled road, and an operating backhoe, but the company used no shoring, bracing, or other cave-in…
Hammet Company, Inc.
Trenching citations vacated
Hammet excavated a trench with two sections, each more than five feet deep. OSHA initially cited the soft-or-unstable-soil trenching rule, but on review conceded that the soil was hard and compact and sought to substitute the hard-soil rule. The Commission held that the record did not prove either…
Dobson Brothers Construction Co.
Repeated spoil-pile violation affirmed and penalty reduced
Dobson Brothers laid pipe in a trench in Lincoln, Nebraska. OSHA alleged that the trench lacked adequate support in soft or unstable soil and that excavated material was stored within two feet of the trench edge. The Commission agreed with the judge that OSHA's expert evidence did not prove the…
D. Federico Company, Inc.
Willful cave-in and spoil-pile citations affirmed
D. Federico had an employee working in a Boston earth cavity where the working depth was about 6.5 feet. The walls were not sloped, shored, sheeted, or braced, a large overhang stood about three feet from the employee, and excavated material was piled within inches of the wall. The judge vacated…
Leone Construction Company
Serious trench-support citation reinstated
Leone installed sewer pipe in a ditch about 50 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 7 feet 5 inches deep. Heavy rain entered the unsupported ditch, whose sandy-clay walls showed cracking and erosion. The judge vacated the citation after deciding that the opening was an excavation rather than a trench. The…
Environmental Utilities Corporation
Willful trench citation reduced to serious
Environmental Utilities installed sewer lines at a Pennsylvania worksite. Two laborers entered an unsupported trench in damp clay after the foreman left to obtain parts, and the trench wall collapsed after about five minutes, trapping both workers and killing one. The Commission agreed that the…
Lige Dickson Co.
Wet trenches required sloping and safe exits
Lige Dickson Company excavated long dewatering trenches in wet, unstable fill at a Tacoma, Washington, worksite. Portions of two trenches were 9 to 10 feet deep, inadequately sloped, and unshored, while an employee worked along the trench bottoms. The company also provided no ladders or steps, and…
Boring & Tunneling Co. of America
Trench ladder and shoring violations affirmed
Boring & Tunneling employees worked in a 14-foot-deep sewer trench reached by a short, improperly pitched, and unsecured ladder. The trench sides were nearly vertical, and the shoring used deteriorated, split, and rotting timbers while nearby highway traffic created vibration. The administrative…
The Bearden Co.
Unsupported trench violation affirmed as serious
The Bearden Company, a plumbing contractor, excavated a sewer-line trench in unstable soil with vertical, unsupported walls. Its foreman lowered an employee into the 8-to-10-foot-deep trench to inspect the sewer main before shoring equipment arrived. The employee later reentered the deep area 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.