I.
Asbestos is a generic term that describes a variety of naturally occurring fibrous, incombustible silicate minerals. Although tremendously valuable to industry, these minerals have been closely linked to lung cancer and asbestosis, a degenerative lung-scarring disease. See generally Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Occupational Exposure to Asbestos,” 40 Fed.Reg. 47652 at 47653-56 (Oct. 9, 1975). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) therefore has regulated emplоyee exposure to asbestos since shortly after the agency’s inception. OSHA has defined asbestos, established standards for its use, and set permissible exposure limits. 1 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1001.
The R.T. Vanderbilt Company mines and distributes an industrial talc, NYTAL 99. The Wenczel Tile Company uses NYTAL 99 in manufacturing tile at its workplace in Tampa, Florida. In February 1976, OSHA representatives inspected Wenczel’s plant and issued a citation for violation of its asbestos standards. The partiеs entered into a settlement agreement, approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (the Commission), whereby all allegations of violations of the asbestos standard were withdrawn. The parties substituted a stipulation that Wenczel had failed to reduce ceiling levels of fibrous talc to permissible levels. Under the terms of the agreement Wenczel was given until September 20, 1977, to achieve complianсe with the talc standard. While the agreement was still in effect, OSHA changed its enforcement policy regarding tremolytic talc.
2
In April 1977, in response to an em
Wenczel contested the citation pursuant to 29 U.S.C.A. § 659(a), thereby invoking the Commission’s jurisdiction. The case was assigned to an administrative law judge (ALJ), and Vanderbilt intervened on behalf of Wenczel, its customer. Wenczel and Vanderbilt disputed the accuracy and reliability of the laboratory techniques used by OSHA but presented no contrary laboratory findings. The companies also argued that OSHA’s 3-to-l length/width ratio, see note 2 supra, is mineralogically unsound for defining a “fiber”, that the asbestos standard had been improperly promulgated and is therefore invalid, and that 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1001(a)(1) is unconstitutionally vague. They further argued that OSHA had not made out a prima facie case, that OSHA was estopped because of its 1976 settlement with Wenсzel, and that Wenczel could not have known through the exercise of reasonable diligence that NYTAL contained asbestos so it should not be held responsible for failing to comply with the asbestos standard.
After a three-day administrative hearing the ALJ rejected the companies’ attack on OSHA’s laboratory techniques and found that the samples contained asbestos within the meaning of the OSHA standard. The ALJ refused to consider a challenge to the asbestos standard, noting that the Commission’s function “does not include reviewing the wisdom of a standard wherein certain minerals are regulated as asbestos.” Nevertheless, he vacated the citations. The 1976 settlement stipulated that Wenczel had failed to comply with ceiling limits established for fibrous talc, but it did not state that there had been a violation of the asbestos standard. The ALJ found that because of the settlement Wenсzel lacked actual or constructive knowledge of the presence of asbestos in its workplace. Wenczel was in compliance with the standard it had been led to believe was controlling.
On discretionary review, the Commission upheld the ALJ’s vacation of the citations, concluding that he had properly evaluated the evidence concerning both the asbestos content of the talc and Wenczel’s lack of knowledge that asbestos was present in its workplace. Petitioner Vanderbilt now appeals to this Court pursuant to 29 U.S.C.A. § 660(a).
3
Wenczel and the Secretary of
II.
The “standing” question in this case, as in most public disputes, is two-fold. First, we must find that petitioner’s claim is cognizable under Article III. Second, we must find that petitioner has a right of action under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
James v. Home Construction Company of Mobile,
The “judicial power” of the federal courts is limited by Article III to adjudication of “the legal rights of litigants in actual controversies.”
Liverpool S.S. Co. v. Commissioners of Emigration,
[A]t an irreducible minimum, Art. Ill requires the party who invokes the court’s authority to “show that he personally has suffered some actual or threatened injury as a result of the putatively illegal conduct of the defendant,” Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood,441 U.S. 91 , 99 [99 S.Ct. 1601 , 1607,60 L.Ed.2d 66 ] (1979), and that the injury “fairly can be traced to the challenged action” and “is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision,” Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Org.,426 U.S. 26 , 38, 41 [96 S.Ct. 1917 , 1924-1925,48 L.Ed.2d 450 ] (1976).
Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc.,
The existence of a “ease or controversy” is necessary but not sufficient to invoke a court’s determination of the merits. We must also find that a litigant possesses a right of action; this turns on whether he is an appropriate party to assert the violation of a рrimary legal right 4 which, if proven, warrants giving him a suitable remedy. 5
III.
The Occupational Safety and Health Commission vacated Wenczel’s citation because it found that Wenczel lacked actual or constructive knowledge of the presence of asbestos in its workplace. Additionally, the Commission found that asbestos fibers were present in the NYTAL 99 used by Wenczel. This latter finding, which purports to be аn adjudication of one of the issues litigated, was neither necessary to nor supportive of the result. Although it cannot, therefore, have any collateral estoppel effect on Wenczel or Vanderbilt,
see
1B J. Moore,
Federal Practice
¶ 0.443[5] (2d ed. 1982), it may have practi cal consequences injurious to Vanderbilt. By impugning the integrity of NYTAL 99, the Commission’s finding has caused Vanderbilt actual injury redressable by this Court. Vanderbilt therefore satisfies Article Ill’s requirement of a personal stаke in the outcome of this appeal insofar as it requests that we vacate the Commission’s finding that the talc samples contained asbestos.
Deposit Guaranty National Bank v. Roper,
There can be no doubt that Wenczel, an employer regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, has a right of action under the Act and could bring this appeal. Vanderbilt, on the other hand, is not “arguably within the zone of interests tо be protected or regulated by the statute,”
see Data Processing, supra,
Vanderbilt argues that it has been adversely affected by the Commission’s order, but it makes no assertion that it is arguably protected or regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The purpose of the Act, as stated in 29 U.S.C.A. § 651(b), is “to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources.”
See also
S.Rep. No. 1282, 91st Cong., 2d Sess.,
reprinted in
1970 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 5177. Congress clearly intended to protect the interests of employees in securing safe working conditions.
Fire Equipment Manufacturers, supra,
The Occupational Safety and Health Act represents a carefully balanced legislative compromise concerning two primarily interested groups — employers and employees. See generally S.Rep. No. 1282, supra. Limitation of access to judicial review under the Act to employers, employees, and the Secretary of Labor helps to preserve this balance and appears to have been intended by Congress. See Conf.Rep. No. 1765, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted in 1970 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 5228, 5235. Granting a right of action to Vanderbilt in this case would therefore contravene the policies of the Act and Congressional intent.
Vanderbilt asserts that if we deny it standing in this case it would never be able to challenge an OSHA regulation. But other avenues are available through which redress of its grievances may be sought. Although our holding that Vanderbilt lacks a right of action under the Occupational
APPEAL DISMISSED.
Notes
. On May 29, 1971, pursuant to 29 U.S.C.A. § 655(a), the Secretary of Labor published a table setting threshold limit values for a number of airborne contaminants, including tremol-ite, asbestos and talc. 29 C.F.R. § 1910.93, Table G-3; 36 Fed.Reg. 10503-06. On December 7, 1971, pursuant to 29 U.S.C.A. § 655(c), OSHA issued a temporary emergency standard revising Table G-3. 36 Fed.Reg. 23267. The emergency standard deleted the table’s reference to asbestos and tremolite, adding a new section entitled “asbestos dust.” The Secretary then published a notice of proposed rule-making along with a proposed permanent asbestos standard which paralleled the emergency standard. Interested parties were invited to comment or object. 37 Fed.Reg. 466. A five-member Advisory Committee was formed to assist in developing the final standard and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) also submitted recommendations. A public hearing was conducted from March 14-17, 1972, at which various representatives and experts appeared on behalf of interested parties, and on June 7, 1972, the Secretary published a final Standard for Exposure to Asbestos Dust. 37 Fed.Reg. 11318-22. The standard included a new subsection which defined “asbestos” and “asbestos fibers.” As defined, “ ‘Asbestos’ includes chrysotile, amo-site, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite, and actinolite.” 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1001(a)(1). “ ‘Asbestos fibers’ means asbestos fibers longer than 5 micrometers.” 29 C.F.R. § 1910.-1001(а)(2).
. In testing samples for asbestos fiber content, OSHA analysts count only fibers which are at least three times longer than wide. Between November 1974 and January 1977, however, as a matter of policy in analyzing talcs, which were thought to be less dangerous than asbestos, OSHA counted only fibers which were five times longer than wide. On November 21,
. 29 U.S.C.A. § 660(a) provides, in pertinent part:
Any person adversely affected or aggrieved by an order of the Commission issued under subsection (c) of section 659 of this title may obtain review of such order in any United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the violation is alleged to have occurred or where the employer has its principal office....
. See generally H.M. Hart & A. Sachs, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in the Making and Application of Law 135, 145-46, 150 (unpublished ed. 1958). A primary legal right is a valid claim to the personal benefit of the performance of a primary legal duty. See id. at 153.
. Hart & Sachs,
supra,
at 154;
see also
Hart & Wechsler’s
The Federal Courts and the Federal System
156 (2d ed. 1973). Ordinarily, the breach of a primary legal duty will give rise, by • operation of law, to one or more remedial rights of action, but the violation of a primary legal right does not necessarily create a right of action in the injured party. For example, in certain regulatory statutes designed to protect the public, the remedial provisions must be carefully balanced to avoid overenforcement.
.
Alabama Power Co. v. Ickes,
.
E.g., Cannon v. University of Chicago,
. The test for implying rights of action under the Constitution is less stringent than that under statutes. In
Davis v. Passman,
. Vanderbilt argues that the asbestos standard is unenforceable because of vagueness and procedural irregularities. We cannot, at this time, resolve these hypothetical issues which are immaterial to the disposition of this case.
See Preiser v. Newkirk, supra,
. The
Data Processing
Court used the “zone of interest” test to determine what parties are “adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute,” and therefore entitled to a right of action by reference to Section 702 of the Administrative Procedure Act. The Occupational Safety and Health Act is a self-contained statute in that it does not depend upon refеrence to the APA for access to judicial review or for specification of the procedures to be followed.
Industrial Union Dept., AFL-CIO v. Hodgson,
. Jaffe, Standing Again, 84 Harv.L.Rev. 633, 637 (1971).
