Opinion ID: 355864
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Pike's Violation of the Regulation

Text: 21 Pike contends that the Commission's decision amounts to the imposition of strict liability upon an employer for the unpreventable acts of its employees. Relying on Horne Plumbing supra, Pike insists that it cannot be held responsible for its employees' misconduct where that misconduct was unforeseeable, implausible, and therefore unpreventable . . .. 528 F.2d at 571. 22 As a general proposition, Pike's contention is unobjectionable. however, 23 . . . if an employee is negligent or creates a violation of a safety standard, that does not necessarily prevent the employer from being held responsible for the violation. . . . True, an employer is not an insurer under the Act. But an employer is responsible if it knew or, with the exercise of reasonable diligence, should have known of the existence of a serious violation. A particular instance of hazardous employee conduct may be considered preventable even if no employer could have detected the conduct, or its hazardous nature, at the moment of its occurrence, . . . (where) such conduct might have been precluded through feasible precautions concerning the hiring, training, and sanctioning of employees. 24 Brennan v. Butler Lime and Cement Co., 520 F.2d 1011, 1017 (7th Cir. 1975), quoting National Realty and Construction Co. v. O.S.H.R.C., 160 U.S.App.D.C. 133, 142-43, 489 F.2d 1257, 1266-67 n. 37. (Citations omitted.) (Emphasis in original.) This approach to employee misconduct has been adopted in this circuit as well. Horne Plumbing, supra, 528 F.2d at 568-69. Applying this standard to the facts of the case at bar, we find the evidence ample to support the Commission's ultimate conclusion. 25 While it is undisputed that Riddle Sr. and Ralph Jordan were instructed not to enter the unshored portion of the trench, the evidence is also undisputed that Riddle Jr. never received such instructions. Neither Riddle Sr. nor Riddle Jr. had any prior experience shoring trenches. Moreover, the evidence showed that all three men had entered the unshored portions of the trench on several occasions. No disciplinary action was ever taken against Jordan or Riddle Jr. Riddle Sr. did receive a mild private reprimand on one occasion when he was observed in the unshored portion of the trench. The company, however, made no effort at that time to ascertain whether other employees had been violating the rule. There is no evidence, moreover, that the company, even after learning of Riddle Sr.'s disregard of the rule, made any additional effort to instruct the men in the correct method of installing shoring. In view of the working foreman's obligation not only to observe the rules, but to insure that the rules were observed by his men, the company's failure to make any further inquiry or take any further corrective action is particularly significant. 26 Because the behavior of supervisory personnel sets an example at the workplace, an employer has if anything a heightened duty to ensure the proper conduct of such personnel. Second, the fact that a foreman would feel free to breach a company safety policy is strong evidence that implementation of the policy was lax. 27 National Realty and Construction Co., Inc. v. O.S.H.R.A.C., 160 U.S.App.D.C. 133, 143, 489 F.2d 1257, 1267 n. 38 (1973). While OSHA does not require an employer to inscribe a safety regulation on parchment or chisel it in stone, neither does it permit him to treat the rule as if it were written in sand. 28 The contrast to Horne Plumbing is instructive. There two workmen were killed when the unshored portion of trench collapsed upon them. Both men understood Mr. Horne's safety instructions; they were trained and highly experienced in the use of shoring; and they had always used shoring properly in previous jobs, including one immediately preceding the Chamblee excavation. 528 F.2d at 566-67. The men had received specific instructions not to work in the unshored portion of the ditch; they disregarded not only these instructions but the continued warnings of fellow employees. The company's safety program was concededly an outstanding one for a small employer. In short, Mr. Horne, the company president, did everything within his power to insure compliance with the law, short of remaining at the job site and directing the operations himself. Id. at 569. Requiring Mr. Horne personally to direct the operation would be wholly unnecessary, unreasonable, and infeasible. 29 Here an inexperienced working foreman was put in charge of an inexperienced crew, at least one of whose members never had received any instruction in the safe method of shoring a trench. The company's training and safety program, rather than producing an atmosphere in which ordinary employees would warn foremen of imminent risks, was inadequate to prevent crew members from following their foreman's poor example. Even after learning that the foreman himself did not scrupulously observe the injunction against venturing into the unshored area of the trench, the company made no additional effort to insure that the rule was understood by the men and enforced by the foreman. In reaching this result, we do not trench upon common sense or require Pike to adopt measures beyond those which are reasonable and feasible; on the contrary, our decision encourages employers to take relatively simple and inexpensive steps to insure compliance with the shoring standard. 30 AFFIRMED.