Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/630/1094/238071/
Timestamp: 2020-08-15 08:17:45
Document Index: 746307462

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1910', '§ 1910', '§ 655', '§ 1910', '§ 655', '§ 1910']

Deering Milliken, Inc., Unity Plant, Petitioner, v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and F. Raymarshall, Secretary of Labor U.S. Department Oflabor, Respondents, 630 F.2d 1094 (5th Cir. 1980) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Fifth Circuit › 1980 › Deering Milliken, Inc., Unity Plant, Petitioner, v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission...
Deering Milliken, Inc., Unity Plant, Petitioner, v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and F. Raymarshall, Secretary of Labor U.S. Department Oflabor, Respondents, 630 F.2d 1094 (5th Cir. 1980)
US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - 630 F.2d 1094 (5th Cir. 1980) Nov. 19, 1980
On February 25 and 26, 1975, an OSHA compliance officer inspected Deering Milliken's Unity Plant in LaGrange, Georgia. Based upon the findings of this compliance officer, the Secretary of Labor cited petitioner for several nonserious violations of 29 C.F.R. 1910.1000, as finally promulgated. Specifically, the Secretary cited petitioner for failure to use respiratory equipment to protect employees from exposure to raw cotton dust exceeding the mandated exposure limit, see 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1000(a) (2) (1979), and for failure to use feasible administrative or engineering controls to protect employees from excessive exposure to raw cotton dust, see 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1000(e) (1979). Record, vol. 1 at 1.5
Petitioner first claims that the Secretary's alleged procedural error renders the citation invalid. While section 6(a) of OSHA provides for summary promulgation of occupational safety and health standards based on any national consensus or established federal standard, any modification of an occupational safety and health standard must be achieved through compliance with the notice and comment procedure of section 6(b). See U.S.C. § 655(b) (2) (1976). Petitioner argues that by proposing the revisions of 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1000 on August 13, 1971, see supra at 1097, the Secretary modified what otherwise would have been a validly promulgated, pre-existing federal standard. Because the regulations as finally adopted were, in petitioner's eyes, substantially different from the pre-existing Walsh-Healey standards upon which they were based, their promulgation required compliance with section 6(b). The Secretary responds to this attack by asserting that petitioner should be barred from offering this objection now because it failed to contest the procedural adequacy of the Secretary's action under OSHA's pre-enforcement review provision, section 6(f). 29 U.S.C. § 655(f) (1976). Thus, we are presented with the threshold question of whether section 6(f) of OSHA is the exclusive vehicle for contesting the procedural validity of regulations promulgated under section 6(a).
The Eighth Circuit did not indicate any legislative authority for the distinction it drew between procedural and substantive attacks on section 6(a) regulations6 , but rather relied upon what it felt to be controlling policy considerations:
This Circuit has consistently held that "(a) long-standing and strong presumption exists that action taken by a federal agency is reviewable in federal court." Save The Bay, Inc. v. Administrator of EPA, 556 F.2d 1282, 1293 (5th Cir. 1977). "A statute must demonstrate clear and convincing evidence of an intent to preclude judicial review before courts will cut off an aggrieved party's right to be heard." Gallo v. Mathews, 538 F.2d 1148, 1151 (5th Cir. 1976). See Consolidated-Tomoka Land Company v. Butz, 498 F.2d 1208, 1209 (5th Cir. 1974). This position is consistent with the Supreme Court's mandate in Abbot Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 140, 87 S. Ct. 1507, 1511, 18 L. Ed. 2d 681 (1967): "(J)udicial review of a final agency action by an aggrieved person will not be cut off unless there is persuasive reason to believe that such was the purpose of Congress."
Section 6(f) is silent concerning its preclusive effect on post pre-enforcement judicial review of section 6(a) regulations. Moreover, the legislative history indicates that "(w)hile (section 6(f)) would be the exclusive method for obtaining pre-enforcement judicial review of a standard, the provision does not foreclose an employer from challenging the validity of a standard during an enforcement proceeding." S.Rep. No. 91-1282, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 8, reprinted in (1970) U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News, pp. 5177, 5184. Mindful that the Supreme Court wishes us to locate a clear command before limiting judicial review, see Barlow v. Collins, 397 U.S. 159, 167, 90 S. Ct. 832, 838, 25 L. Ed. 2d 192 (1970), we simply cannot justify finding that the pre-enforcement review provisions of section 6(f) bar petitioner's procedural attack.
We are aware, while following this path, that the Ninth Circuit has reached the same conclusion. See Marshall v. Union Oil Co. of California, 616 F.2d 1113, 1117-1118 (9th Cir. 1980); Noblecraft Industries, Inc. v. Secretary of Labor, 614 F.2d 199, 201-202 (9th Cir. 1980). Indeed, the Ninth Circuit has discussed a practical consideration that we wish to reiterate. Many regulations were promulgated summarily through section 6(a). See 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1-1910.1500 (1979). Industry would have found it quite burdensome to comb through every 6(a) regulation and object to inappropriate promulgations within sixty days, considering the "multitude of regulations (which) could have been promulgated without notice or hearing within two years of the enactment of OSHA." Union Oil Co. of California, 616 F.2d at 1118. Surely it was within Congress's power so to mandate, but the record is devoid of references which would support the finding of such an intent. Arguably, industry was lulled by the legislative requirement that all properly promulgated 6(a) regulations would be pre-existing and familiar to industry, see S.Rep. No. 91-1282, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 5-6, reprinted in (1970) U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News, pp. 5177, 5182, and this, combined with the potential number and technical complexity of summarily promulgated regulations, makes it particularly inappropriate to find section 6(f) a bar to procedural attack on 6(a) regulations. In the absence of a statutory scheme clearly indicating a Congressional intent to limit judicial review, we refuse to presume in favor of "administrative absolutism." Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 157, 90 S. Ct. 827, 831-832, 25 L. Ed. 2d 184 (1970).
Walsh-Healey commanded that exposure to air contaminants above a certain level "shall be avoided" clear, mandatory language requiring full compliance with specified exposure limits. Walsh-Healey went on to state: "To achieve compliance with paragraph (a) of this section (exposure limits), feasible administrative or engineering controls must first be determined and implemented in all cases." (Emphasis added.) See supra, at 1099-1100. Thus, feasible engineering and administrative controls were mandatory under Walsh-Healey; protective equipment, when used, was not a substitute for feasible alternative means of air contaminant control, but rather a means of compliance available when engineering or administrative controls were infeasible, or only partially effective. Thus, Walsh-Healey parallels the present requirements of section 1910.1000(e): "To achieve compliance with paragraph (a) ... administrative or engineering controls must first be determined and implemented whenever feasible. When such controls are not feasible to achieve full compliance, protective equipment ... shall be used. ..."Petitioner next contends that section 1910.1000 transformed advisory guidelines under Walsh-Healey into mandatory exposure limits. Walsh-Healey specifically provided that "(e)xposures by inhalation to any material or substance (1) at a concentration above those specified in the 'Threshold Limit Values of Airborne Contaminants for 1970' ... shall be avoided ...." (Emphasis added.) See supra at 1100. Section 1910.1000(a) (2) provides simply that an employee's exposure to air contaminants "shall not exceed" the specified Threshold Limit Values (values identical to those under Walsh-Healey) (emphasis added). The language of both regulations is clearly mandatory. Whether the Threshold Limit Values mandated by Walsh-Healey were only advisory when originally established by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (see Brief for Petitioner at 20-21) is irrelevant; Walsh-Healey incorporated those values as mandatory exposure limits, and maintenance of their mandatory character through promulgation of section 1910.1000 was not a modification of the pre-existing Walsh-Healey standard.
Certainly the correlation between what is now termed byssinosis and the dust associated with the processing of cotton has been commonly known for several hundred years. See A.F.L.-C.I.O. v. Marshall, 617 F.2d 636, n.11 at 644-45 (D.C. Cir. 1979) cert. granted, --- U.S. ---- - ----, 101 S. Ct. 68, 65 L. Ed. 2d ---- - ---- (1980), quoting from B. Ramazzini, A Treatise of The Diseases of Tradesmen (London, 1705). Yet, "(a)lthough the prevalence of the disease among cotton workers has been known for centuries, its exact etiology is still not completely understood.... (V)ariations in the composition of cotton dust (has) compounded the uncertainties about the actual way in which cotton dust exposure causes serious health impairments." A.F.L.-C.I.O. v. Marshall, 617 F.2d 644-45 (footnotes omitted). Faced with this Congressionally recognized correlation and the scientific uncertainties surrounding the exact cause of byssinosis, the Secretary sought to implement the will of Congress through promulgation of a pre-existing federal standard dealing with exposure to cotton dust. The history of that standard sheds light on the invalidity of petitioner's assertion.
The Walsh-Healey standard, predecessor of section 1910.1000, was, as previously discussed, based directly, upon a study conducted by Drs. Roach and Schilling. supra, at 1102. That study used total dust arising from the processing of cotton both to conduct experimental analysis and to set threshold levels of exposure. Record Excerpts at 9, 39. Section 1910.1000's reformulation of the Walsh-Healey standard, therefore, was a promulgation of exposure limits based upon readings of total cotton dust. Given the uncertainty regarding the precise dust components causing byssinosis7 , the Congressional recognition that it was the dust "generated in the processing of cotton" which somehow was to blame, the distinct scientific correlation between measurements of total cotton dust and the incidence of byssinosis, Record at 8-9, 39, and the total dust foundation of the federal standard adopted by the Secretary to fight byssinosis, we find it eminently reasonable and foreseeable that section 1910.1000 would be enforced on the basis of total cotton dust generated by the processing of cotton. If there ever was any vagueness in the wording of the regulation, its history and the legislative intent behind its implementation as an OSHA mandate, coupled with the enforcement posture of the Secretary, dispelled that vagueness and rendered the meaning of section 1910.1000 clear. For these reasons, petitioner's attack based on the vagueness of the regulation must be rejected.