S.A. Storer & Sons Co. v. Secretary of Labor

**What Happened** S.A. Storer & Sons Co., a construction company, was cited by OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) for violating fall protection safety rules. The company was doing bricklaying work and argued they qualified for a special exception in OSHA regulations called the "overhand bricklaying exception," which allows certain types of bricklaying work to be done without standard fall protection equipment. OSHA disagreed and issued the citation anyway. The company challenged this citation. **What the Court Decided** The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the company and sent the case back to be reconsidered. The court found that the Secretary of Labor and OSHA had misinterpreted the regulations about when the overhand bricklaying exception applies. The court didn't make a final ruling on whether the company actually violated safety rules, but said the original decision was based on the wrong understanding of the law. **Why This Matters for Workers** This case highlights the ongoing tension between workplace safety requirements and industry-specific exceptions. While the ruling may benefit some construction employers, it also shows that OSHA regulations can be complex and subject to different interpretations, potentially affecting how safety rules are enforced on job sites.