J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corporation v. Marshall - U.S. Court of Appeals (9th. Circ.) - Jan. 13, 1980

Repeated violation of occupational safety regulations

A corporation was accused of repeated violations of OHSA safety regulations requiring the guarding of hatches on vessels. The corporation’s defence was that it was not guilty of repeated violations because the charges related to different hatches on different vessels. The Court held that neither the Constitution nor the Occupational Safety and Health Act required that a violation must occur on the same structure to be a “repeated” violation. The Court added that the violations were all similar in that an opening had been left unguarded.