MATTER OF ESTABLISHMENT INSPECTION, ETC., 80 C 202.
| Decision Date | 20 February 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 80 C 202.,80 C 202. |
| Citation | 484 F. Supp. 215 |
| Parties | In the Matter of ESTABLISHMENT INSPECTION OF FEDERAL CLEARING DIE CASTING COMPANY, a corporation. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
Carin Ann Clauss, Herman Grant, Secretary of Labor, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., and Michele M. Fox, Chicago, Ill., for Ray Marshall.
This cause comes before the court on the petition of the Secretary of Labor for an Order directing the respondent Federal Clearing Die Casting Company to show cause why it should not be held in civil contempt for disobeying the warrant for inspection issued on January 10, 1980, by Magistrate John W. Cooley, pursuant to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 OSHA. 28 U.S.C. § 636(d)(1).
In the Application for Inspection Warrant presented to Magistrate Cooley, representatives of the Secretary attached copies of two newspaper articles discussing an on-the-job injury suffered by one of the respondent's employees. In each of said articles, it was reported that both of the employee's hands had been severed in a punch press accident. Also presented to the Magistrate was evidence that Federal Clearing had, in 1975, received an OSHA citation relating to the safe operation of similar presses. After reviewing the Secretary's Application materials, Magistrate Cooley found that there was probable cause for believing that the respondent's worksite should be inspected to the extent requested, and issued the inspection warrant in question.
This court agrees with the Magistrate's conclusion on the question of probable cause. That an employee of the respondent had both of his hands severed while working on a press maintained by Federal Clearing is, in the opinion of this court, specific evidence of an existing OSHA violation. Magistrate Cooley's determination that probable cause existed for the inspection being sought thus could properly have been founded solely upon the reports contained in the newspaper articles attached to the Secretary's Application. Marshall v. Barlow's Inc., 436 U.S. 307, 320, 98 S.Ct. 1816, 1824, 56 L.Ed.2d 305 (1978). The fact that Federal Clearing had been cited in the past for similar OSHA violations, clearly, although not conclusive in and of itself, served to buttress the Magistrate's finding.
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Proctor v. State Government of North Carolina
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Donovan v. Federal Clearing Die Casting Co.
...** Judge, and WOOD, Circuit Judge. KUNZIG, Judge. In these consolidated cases, the question before us is whether the district court, 484 F.Supp. 215, properly denied Federal Clearing Die Casting Company's (Federal) 1 motion to quash an OSHA 2 inspection warrant, simultaneously holding that ......