Division of Occupational Safety & Health of the Industrial Commission v. Chuck Westenburg Concrete Contractors, Inc.

972 P.2d 244, 193 Ariz. 260, 285 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 13, 1998 Ariz. App. LEXIS 228
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedDecember 24, 1998
DocketNo. 1 CA-IC 97-0109
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 972 P.2d 244 (Division of Occupational Safety & Health of the Industrial Commission v. Chuck Westenburg Concrete Contractors, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Division of Occupational Safety & Health of the Industrial Commission v. Chuck Westenburg Concrete Contractors, Inc., 972 P.2d 244, 193 Ariz. 260, 285 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 13, 1998 Ariz. App. LEXIS 228 (Ark. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

THOMPSON, Presiding Judge.

¶ 1 This is a statutory special action review of Arizona Occupational Safety and Health Review Board (review board) findings and order reversing an administrative law judge’s decision that the respondent employer, Chuck Westenburg Concrete Contractors, Inc. (Westenburg Contractors) had violated [263]*263three Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. The sole stated basis for this reversal was the review board’s conclusion that Westenburg Contractors was not responsible for the soil retention system at the excavation, which failed.

¶2 The Division of Occupational Safety and Health of the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ADOSH) timely petitioned for review. For the following reasons, we set aside the review board’s findings and order.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 3 Mark Douglas Norton testified that in March 1993, he was an ADOSH safety compliance officer conducting workplace inspections to determine compliance with OSHA regulations. On March 12, 1993, he investigated an accident at a jobsite at 5301 E. Grant Road in Tucson, where a parking structure was being constructed. He stated that he spent several days at the site, which he described as a large excavation with some concrete walls already poured and others covered by a soil protection system. In the course of his investigation, he examined the excavation area, interviewed employees of Westenburg Contractors and T.L. Roof & Associates (Roof), took photographs, and retained an engineer, Claude Baker, to assist him. As a result of this investigation, he recommended that three citations be issued to Westenburg Contractors as well as citations to the general contractor, Roof, and the engineering firm that designed the soil protection system, Terracon.

¶ 4 Norton testified that the accident occurred on Friday, March 12, 1993. He stated that two Westenburg Contractors employees were working near the west wall of the excavation when a large portion of the west wall collapsed completely burying one employee, who died, and partially burying another, who escaped serious injury.

¶ 5 Two days before this accident, sandy soil had been noted to be sloughing off the bottom of the west wall on the north side of the elevator shaft pit where Westenburg Contractors’ employees were digging footings. Westenburg Contractors’ foreman, Jesus Robles, Sr. (Robles, Sr.), removed his workers from this area and reported the sloughing to Roofs project superintendent, Juan Roman. Roman attempted to control the sloughing by setting wooden forms and pouring concrete slurry over the area that was sloughing, but the forms broke. Roman decided that no employees would be allowed to work in the elevator shaft area until the sloughing could be remedied.

¶6 Norton testified that the employees he interviewed indicated that the sloughing on the west wall had continued unabated until the accident. During his investigation, Norton observed a number of factors that could have affected the stability of the excavation, such as heavy rainfall, a previous excavation adjacent to the west wall, potholes dug adjacent to the west wall that had collected water, and vibration from a paved, well-traveled city road running parallel to the west wall.

¶ 7 Norton also testified that he became aware that neither Roof nor Westenburg Contractors had a “competent person” on the jobsite in accordance with OSHA regulations. He found that none of Westenburg Contractors’ employees had any knowledge or training in the OSHA excavation standard, which would allow them to recognize potential hazards. Finally, he stated that a competent person would have realized that the sloughing that was occurring along the west wall indicated that the entire west wall and its bank protection system needed to be reevaluated.

¶ 8 Jesus Alfredo Robles (Robles) worked as a laborer for Westenburg Contractors in March 1993 at the TMC parking garage. His father, Robles, Sr., was his foreman. He testified that he had never worked in an excavation before and that the only safety training he had received consisted of instructions to wear goggles, to use work shoes, to work in pairs, and not to climb on the soil retention fence.

¶9 Before the accident in question, he had noted dirt sloughing off the bottom of the west wall into the footings near the elevator shaft. He stated that Westenburg Contractors’ crew cleaned out the footings, but the following day more dirt had sloughed off [264]*264into them again. Robles testified that at that point, his father told Westenburg Contractors’ employees not to go near the west wall until he could speak to Roman about the falling dirt.

¶ 10 Robles testified that on March 12, 1993, Roman instructed Robles', Sr. to prepare for a concrete pour. Robles, Sr. then sent two employees to do the preparatory work along the west wall, but he told them to avoid the elevator shaft. Robles testified that although the two employees were approximately thirty to forty feet from the area on the west wall where the sloughing had been occurring, when the wall fell it did so from north to south, in a domino effect, beginning where the prior sloughing had been and traveling to the area where the two employees were working. Robles stated that he helped dig out the buried worker, Rodolfo De La Cruz, who was killed in the accident.

¶ 11 Robles, Sr. testified that in March 1993, he was Westenburg Contractors’ working foreman at the TMC parking garage. He stated that he was responsible for approximately twenty employees on that site. He testified that he had worked for Westenburg Contractors for eleven years and had never had any training in soil classification, general workplace safety, or excavation safety-

¶ 12 Robles, Sr. testified that on March 10, 1993, the west wall had been sloughing into the elevator shaft footing on the north side of the elevator shaft. He stated that he reported to Roman that sand was running into the footing, and he could not keep it cleaned out. He testified that Roman told him to get his crew out of that area. Roman then tried to stop the sand by setting plywood forms and pouring concrete slurry over the area. Robles, Sr. stated that the forms broke, but the concrete and forms in the footing made it difficult to see where the sand had been running.

¶ 13 Robles, Sr. testified that on the morning of March 12, 1993, Roman attended a contract meeting with Tom Roof, Chuck Westenburg, and several others. Immediately after that meeting, Roman told him that a concrete pour had to be performed that day and to place bulkheads on either side of the elevator shaft footing. Robles, Sr. stated that he went to the west wall with De La Cruz and George Vega (Vega) and did a visual inspection of the wall to see if any soil was running out from under the soil protection fence. He testified that the wall looked solid, so he left De La Cruz and Vega to place the bulkheads. Shortly thereafter, approximately thirty-five feet of the three-hundred foot west wall collapsed killing De La Cruz.

¶ 14 Robles, Sr. testified that he was not familiar with the “competent person” requirement. He stated that it was not his job as a subcontractor to inspect the jobsite daily. Further, he had no authority to alter the soil retention system. Robles, Sr. testified that he had never walked around the top of the west wall so he had never seen any potholes or cracks. He stated that he stayed inside the excavation where his work was performed.

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972 P.2d 244, 193 Ariz. 260, 285 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 13, 1998 Ariz. App. LEXIS 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/division-of-occupational-safety-health-of-the-industrial-commission-v-arizctapp-1998.