Opinion ID: 532510
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure of the Mine Act to Provide De Minimis Penalties

Text: 30 Petitioners argue that neither the Mine Act nor its supporters envisioned uniform de minimis penalties for low-gravity, timely-abated violations. They point in contrast to the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, 29 U.S.C. Secs. 651 et seq. (1982), which statutorily provides for different levels of civil penalty maxima depending on whether the violation was willful or repeated, serious, or not serious. Id. Secs. 666(a)-(c). The OSH Act also authorizes the Secretary of Labor to issue a notice in lieu of a citation with respect to certain de minimis violations. Id. Sec. 658(a). Absent any similar authorization in the Mine Act, petitioners claim that assessing the same $20 penalty for all low-gravity, timely-abated violations runs so contrary to the congressional purpose as to fall short of even the relatively relaxed Chevron II threshold of reasonableness. See Pet.Br. at 18-20; Pet.Reply Br. at 9-10. 31 We disagree with that conclusion for several reasons. First, Congress indisputably left the actual size of all penalties, up to a maximum of $10,000, to the Secretary's discretion. Second, even under the regular assessment, a one-time, timely abated low-gravity penalty would probably incur a fine of around $30. See 30 C.F.R. Sec. 100.3(f), (g) (applying penalty conversion table, with possible 30% reduction for timely abatement). Thus, the single penalty, which inevitably saves agency time and paperwork, would yield nearly the same result as a regular assessment in the bulk of cases involving minor infractions. See generally Part II.B.2.b, infra. 32 Petitioners also point to the Senate Human Resources Committee's 33 intention that the unwarranted failure citation is appropriately used for all violations, whether or not they create a hazard which poses a danger to miners[,] as long as they are not of a purely technical nature. The Committee assumes, however, that when technical violations do pose a health or safety danger to miners, and are the result of an unwarranted failure the unwarranted failure notice will be issued. 34 S.Rep. No. 181, at 31, 1977 Legislative History at 619. Petitioners argue on the basis of this Report that Congress was willing to countenance a de minimis -type penalty only for violations that pose no threat of injury to the miner--a much narrower category than violations that are not reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury, the classification now covered by the single penalty. Pet.Br. at 18-19. We find this reasoning problematic, however, because even under the cited language, the occurrence of a low-gravity violation that is timely abated is not automatic proof that the operator unwarrantably failed to comply with appropriate standards. The MSHA Manual indicates that a failure to comply is unwarrantable only if the operator was engaging in aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence. MSHA Manual, Vol. I, Sec. 104(d), at 16. Clearly, not all non-technical violations involve such extraordinary negligence. Furthermore, the cited language appears in the context of the Committee's approval of the Board of Mine Operation Appeals' decision minimizing the gravity of a violation necessary for it to be classified as significant and substantial. Thus, we understand the Committee to say that an unwarrantable failure citation is a remedy available to an inspector confronting a non-technical violation that involves unwarrantable behavior, such as the operator's deliberate or repetitious violation of a health or safety standard. We do not believe that the Committee concluded that every violation except the no-risk technical one requires an unwarrantable failure citation. 35