Opinion ID: 464793
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: OSHA and Negligence Per Se

Text: 65 There is one more step to take in determining whether the doctrine of negligence per se can be applied to violations of OSHA regulations. The problem at this point stems not from FELA since there is nothing in FELA that prohibits the use of this doctrine, but from OSHA itself. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 653(b)(4) provides that 66 [n]othing in this chapter shall be construed to supersede or in any manner affect any workman's compensation law or to enlarge or diminish or affect in any other manner the common law or statutory rights, duties, or liabilities of employers and employees under any law with respect to injuries, diseases, or death of employees arising out of, or in the course of, employment. 67 A few courts have read this language to prohibit the application of the doctrine of negligence per se to the violation of OSHA regulations. In Wendland v. Ridgefield Const. Services, Inc., a personal injury case, the Supreme Court of Connecticut reasoned that 68 [a] negligence per se instruction transforms the character of the factfinder's inquiry. The applicable standard if care is affected by such an instruction. Because the standard of care is the key factor in determining liability, we conclude that the application of a negligence per se instruction affects common law rights, duties and liabilities of employers and employees ... as those terms are used in 29 U.S.C. Sec. 653(b)(4).... 69 184 Conn. 173, 439 A.2d 954, 956-57 (Conn.1981). This reasoning was followed in Hebel v. Conrail, 475 N.E.2d 652 (Ind.1985), a case on all fours with the case before us. In Hebel, the Supreme Court of Indiana overturned a lower court ruling allowing a negligence per se instruction in a FELA case for a violation of an OSHA regulation on the grounds that the language of Sec. 653(b)(4) prohibited this use of OSHA regulations. 70 The Fifth Circuit, on the other hand, the only circuit court to have addressed this issue, has consistently found Sec. 653(b)(4) no obstacle to applying the doctrine of negligence per se to OSHA violations. 5 Dixon v. International Harvester Co., 754 F.2d 573, 581 (5th Cir.1985); Rabon v. Automatic Fasteners, Inc., 672 F.2d 1231, 1238 (5th Cir.1982); Melerine v. Avondale Shipyards, Inc., 659 F.2d 706, 709 (5th Cir.1981). In doing so, the Fifth Circuit has distinguished between the use of regulations as a standard of care where the underlying cause of action is based upon either state common law or another federal statute and the derivation of a private right of action from regulations themselves: 71 This Court has often held that violation of a Federal law or regulation can be evidence of negligence, and even evidence of negligence per se.... 72 The mere fact that the law which evidences negligence is Federal while the negligence action itself is brought under State common law does not mean that the state law claim metamorphoses into a private right of action under Federal regulatory law. 73 Lowe v. General Motors Corp., 624 F.2d 1373, 1379 (5th Cir.1980). Therefore, while the Fifth Circuit has found, 6 along with every other court that has considered this issue, 7 that Sec. 653(b)(4) was designed to ensure that OSHA did not permit injured employees to bypass applicable state worker's compensation schemes through a private action in federal court, it has distinguished this limitation on the uses of OSHA from a limitation that would prevent violations of OSHA regulations from having the same consequences under already existing common law and statutory schemes as violations of any other regulatory statute. Under this view, applying the doctrine of negligence per se to violations of OSHA regulations does not create any new rights, duties or liabilities. 74 Before a violation of an OSHA regulation can be considered negligence per se, there must be an independent cause of action established by either state or federal law which establishes the right of an employee to be free from negligence, the duty of the employer to take reasonable precautions, and the liability of the employer for injuries caused by the failure to take reasonable precautions. Allowing OSHA regulations to act as guides for the determination of standards of care, National Marine Service, Inc. v. Gulf Oil Co., 433 F.Supp. 913, 919 (E.D.La.1977) (Rubin, J.), aff'd 608 F.2d 522 (5th Cir.1979), should not be viewed as expanding the liability of employers. The doctrine of negligence per se does not have the effect of turning reasonable, nontortious behavior into unreasonable, tortious behavior. Rather it simply allows the presence of a statutory regulation to serve as irrefutable evidence that particular conduct is unreasonable. 75 A similar analysis was made by the Fourth Circuit in a case where it had to decide whether a regulation adopted under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. Sec. 901, et seq. (1982), could be admitted as evidence of a shipowner's negligence even though the regulation stated that 76 [i]t is not the intent of the regulations of this part to place additional responsibilities or duties on owners, operators, agents or masters of vessels unless such persons are acting as employers, nor is it the intent of these regulations to relieve such owners, operators, agents or masters of vessels from responsibilities or duties now placed upon them by law, regulation or custom. 77 29 C.F.R. Sec. 9.2(b) (renumbered as 29 C.F.R. Sec. 1918.2(b) (1971)). The defendant, a shipowner who was not an employer, argued that the regulation could not be admitted into evidence because this would then have the effect of placing an additional responsibility upon the shipowner in violation of the intent of the regulations. The court pointed out the error of this argument: 78 The regulation casts upon the shipowner no new duty nor does it relieve him of any pre-existing duty. Now, as before the regulation was promulgated, it is incumbent upon him to supply a seaworthy ship.... The legal duty is the same. All that the regulation does is to define how this well-established duty shall be discharged in particular circumstances by the stevedore who has undertaken to perform the shipowner's nondelegable duty.... It prescribes a standard of safety, not a new duty.... 79 Of what possible use would a safety regulation be if its sanction is withdrawn by suppressing knowledge of it from the triers of fact? How can it be determined whether a condition complained of meets the standard of safety if the jury is kept in the dark as to what that standard is? ... 80 A more reasonable reading and one that observes both the language and the spirit is that no new duty is to be exacted where none existed before and, equally, no existing duty is to be excused by reason of the regulation; but the regulation's requirement may be considered by the trier of fact in determining whether its nonperformance has resulted in a failure to meet a duty incumbent upon the defendant.... 81 Provenza v. American Export Lines, Inc., 324 F.2d 660, 665-66 (4th Cir.1963), cert. denied, 376 U.S. 952, 84 S.Ct. 970, 11 L.Ed.2d 971 (1964). 82 The legislative history of Sec. 653(b)(4) shows that the intent of the provision was merely to ensure that OSHA was not read to create a private right of action for injured workers which would allow them to bypass the otherwise exclusive remedy of worker's compensation. This can be seen in a letter from the Solicitor of Labor to the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Labor explaining the operation of the provision: 83 Dear Mr. Chairman: This is in response to your recent request for information upon which to base a reply to Mr. James E. Bailey, Legislative Counsel, American Society of Insurance Management, Inc. 84 In his letter, Mr. Bailey expresses concern that under proposed legislation dealing with occupational health and safety an injured employee could claim violation of the requirements of the legislation and thus bypass the applicable state workmen's compensation benefits through an action in the Federal courts. 85 The provisions of S.2788, the Administration's proposed Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1969 would in no way affect the present status of the law with regard to workmen's compensation legislation or private tort actions. 86 Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1969: Hearings on H.R.843, H.R.3809, H.R.4294 and H.R.13373 before the Select Subcomm. on Education and Labor, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., Part 2 at 1592-93 (letter of L.H. Silberman, Solicitor of Labor). See also Frohlick Crane Serv., Inc. v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Comm'n, 521 F.2d 628, 631 (10th Cir.1975) (It would appear that by this particular provision Congress simply intended to preserve the existing private rights of an injured employee, which rights were to be unaffected by the various sections of the Act itself.). 87 We find the Fifth Circuit's analysis of Sec. 653(b)(4) persuasive. Our review of the legislative history of OSHA suggests that it is highly unlikely that Congress considered the interaction of OSHA regulations with other common law and statutory schemes other than worker's compensation. The provision is satisfactorily explained as intended to protect worker's compensation acts from competition by a new private right of action and to keep OSHA regulations from having any effect on the operation of the worker's compensation scheme itself. See United Steelworkers of America v. Marshall, 647 F.2d 1189, 1235-36 (D.C.Cir.1981). Furthermore, we do not find that the plain language of the provision is violated by allowing the regulations to serve as standards of care under the doctrine of negligence per se; the rights, liabilities and duties of the railroad are established by FELA and not by OSHA. We hold, therefore, that Sec. 653(b)(4) does not prevent violations of OSHA regulations from being considered as evidence of negligence per se.