Safety Violations

Listen to this article

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Norther Illinois Service Company v. Thomas Perez

Case No.: 15-2640

Officials: POSNER, EASTERBROOK, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges

Focus: Safety Violations

Petition to Review for non-serious safety and health violations denied.

“The company contends that the ALJ explained his decision inadequately, but it is thorough and covers the important issues. The company really means that in its view the ALJ applied the regulation incorrectly. It stresses that the regulation speaks of “units” in the plural, while the company’s trailer had only one unlabeled switch. Yet it is a principle of legal interpretation that the plural includes the singular. 1 U.S.C. §1 ¶2. Under this statute, known as the Dictionary Act, drafters can use either the singular or the plural knowing that judges will treat each as including the other “unless the context indicates otherwise”. Statutes and regulations are long enough as they are without forcing drafters to include both the singular and the plural every time. Observing that on occasion a plural construction really is designed to limit coverage to multiple instances, drafting guides recommend use of the singular for clarity. See, e.g., Bryan A. Garner, Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Legislation §2.4 (2016); Senate Legislative Drafting Manual §104(a) (1997). But as the company does not contend that either the linguistic or economic context of §56.12018 implies a limit to more than one unit at a location—why would the Administration devise such a limit in such a backhanded way?—we apply the norm from the Dictionary Act.”

Petition for Review Denied

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.