Recent decisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission related to personal and corporate liability
In virtually identical language in both the 1969 Coal Act and the 1977 Mine Act, Congress provided for the imposition of civil penalties on the agents of corporate mine operators for {open_quotes}knowingly{close_quotes} violating mandatory health or safety standards. These personal penalties were a key ingredient of Congress` purpose to {open_quotes}place the responsibility for compliance with the Act and the regulations, as well as the liability for violations on those who control or supervise the operation of coal mines as well as on those who operate them.{close_quotes} Some in Congress recognized, as a practical matter, the {open_quotes}awkward situation{close_quotes} of the corporate agent, {open_quotes}positioned somewhere between{close_quotes} these stringent statutes and his boss, the corporate operator; some also felt that the agent should not {open_quotes}bear the brunt of corporate violations.{close_quotes}. Few in industry or government would doubt the general proposition that a personal civil penalty is strong medicine. Now, some 25 and 18 years, respectively, after passage of the 1969 Coal Act and 1977 Mine Act, especially with legislative reform proposals swirling about in Congress, the mining community is at an appropriate juncture to ask how well this medicine has been administered and how well the patient has responded. It is not within this paper`s scope to offer a broad answer to that question. Rather, this paper more narrowly examines an important part of the larger question: how has the independent administrative agency established under the 1977 Mine Act to handle litigation arising under that statute, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission ({open_quotes}Commission{close_quotes}), interpreted and applied section 110(c) of the Act.
- OSTI ID:
- 269099
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9508117-; TRN: 96:002012-0005
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 26. annual institute on mining, health, safety and research, Blacksburg, VA (United States), 28-30 Aug 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual Institute on Mining Health, Safety and Research; Tinney, G.R.; Bacho, A.; Karmis, M. [eds.]; PB: 164 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Mine safety and health: A formula for continued success
Annual report of the Secretary of Labor under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, fiscal year 1980. Volume 1