Stephen Irving, Chair of P&A’s OSHA practice, with support from Houston Associate Blake Householder, recently secured another significant win for a civil contractor client in a high-stakes OSHA enforcement matter.

Following a flash fire during the client’s work at an owner’s Houston-area petrochemical facility, which resulted in injuries to three of the contractor’s employees, OSHA conducted an inspection and ultimately issued five serious citations with maximum penalties. From the outset, Stephen argued that OSHA would be unable to establish that the client had the requisite knowledge of the alleged hazard, particularly given the owner’s prior awareness of the conditions and representations to the client that all hazards had been properly controlled.

After just one day of trial before an administrative law judge of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, and following targeted cross-examination by P&A, OSHA reassessed its case as its ability to meet its burden of proof weakened. The parties reopened settlement discussions and ultimately reached a favorable resolution with the government accepting an agreement to vacate three citations and reclassify the remaining two citations as “other-than-serious” along a reduction of penalties to approximately 20% of the original amount.

This outcome was a tremendous victory for the client as it preserves their ability to compete for future work, which could have been significantly impacted by sustained serious violations.

P&A’s Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) practice can assist nationwide with safety and health matters from crisis management and incident investigations to OSHA/State-plan OSH agency relations and litigation of citation contests. For more information, please contact Stephen Irving at (713) 568-3429 or Sirving@pecklaw.com.