2013 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 351 - DEPARTMENT FOR NATURAL RESOURCES 351.194 Administrative hearing procedures -- Hearing regarding licensee, coal operation, or other person -- Order -- Enforcement -- Civil penalty or fine.
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351.194 Administrative hearing procedures -- Hearing regarding licensee,
coal operation, or other person -- Order -- Enforcement -- Civil penalty or
fine.
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The Mine Safety Review Commission shall promulgate administrative
regulations in accordance with KRS Chapter 13A to establish administrative
hearings procedures to be followed in determining if violations of mine safety
laws, including, but not limited to, violations that meet the criteria established in
KRS 351.025(1) or (2), have occurred and to establish a process to review
recommended orders from any hearing officers acting on behalf of the
commission. The procedures shall follow the requirements of KRS Chapter 13B
and this chapter.
The chair or a majority of the Mine Safety Review Commission may convene a
meeting of the commission at which it shall consider whether to schedule a
hearing regarding any licensee, coal operation, or other person involved in the
mining of coal.
If the commission determines that there is probable cause to believe that the
licensee, coal operation, or other person against whom the department has
made allegations of unsafe work practices or other violation of applicable law is
guilty of an alleged violation, the commission shall schedule a hearing at which
the department shall offer evidence in support of the allegations made by it.
The licensee, coal operation, or other person against whom the allegations are
made shall be given not less than twenty (20) days' written notice of the
charges against him, together with the date, time, and place at which the
charges shall be heard, and of his opportunity to be represented by counsel,
produce evidence and witnesses on his behalf, and examine the evidence and
documents that may be produced against him. The commission may also be
represented by counsel and shall not be bound by the technical rules of
evidence, but its order shall be based upon competent evidence. Any licensee
or other person summoned to appear at a hearing in the manner established in
this subsection may, in writing, waive the notice required to be given to him.
The commission may proceed with its hearing of charges made by the
department against any licensee, coal operation, or other person who, after
being duly notified in accordance with the requirements of this section, fails to
appear at or participate in the hearing and who fails to assert any legitimate
basis for the failure.
Within ninety (90) days after hearing, the commission shall issue an order in
which it sets out its determinations concerning each matter coming before it.
Copies of the order shall be provided to all parties to the hearing. The
department shall carry out or enforce, as appropriate, the order of the
commission, which may include, though not be limited to, the imposition of civil
penalties, revocation, suspension, or probation of the mine license or the
miner's certification.
The commission may modify a civil penalty or fine established under this
chapter, under criteria established by the commission by administrative
regulations.
In assessing monetary penalties within the limits provided in KRS 351.025, the
commission shall consider the operator's history of previous violations, the
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appropriateness of the penalty to the size of the operator charged, whether the
operator was negligent, the effect on the operator's ability to continue in
business, the gravity of the violation, the demonstrated good faith of the person
charged in attempting to achieve rapid compliance after notification of a
violation, and whether a penalty has been imposed by the Federal Mine Safety
and Health Act for a violation that arose out of the same set of facts or
circumstances.
An appeal of an order of the commission shall be filed in the Franklin Circuit
Court within thirty (30) days of entry of the order.
Effective:June 26, 2007
History: Amended 2007 Ky. Acts ch. 94, sec. 11, effective June 26, 2007. -Amended 2001 Ky. Acts ch. 149, sec. 11, effective March 20, 2001. -- Amended
1998 Ky. Acts ch. 480, sec. 3, effective July 15, 1998. -- Created 1996 Ky. Acts
ch. 308, sec. 20, effective April 9, 1996.
Legislative Research Commission Note (4/9/96). The action taken with respect to
this statute by 1996 Ky. Acts ch. 308 was to have become effective April 8,
1996, under Section 51 of that Act. The Act, however, did not become effective
until April 9, 1996, when the Governor's signed copy of the Act was filed with the
Secretary of State.
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