United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

____________ FILED October 6, 2023 No. 22-60466 Lyle W. Cayce ____________ Clerk

Darling Ingredients, Incorporated,

Petitioner,

versus

Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission; Martin Walsh, Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor,

Respondents. ______________________________

Appeal from the Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission Agency No. 21-0240 ______________________________

Before Jones, Clement, and Haynes, Circuit Judges. Edith Brown Clement: Two people were killed while unclogging a machine at a chicken- rendering plant. When the Occupational Safety and Health Agency investigated, it found that the plant’s “lockout/tagout” procedures did not “clearly and specifically outline” how to safely work on the machine, so it cited the plant’s owner. Because we find no error in the decision to uphold those citations, we AFFIRM. Case: 22-60466 Document: 00516923198 Page: 2 Date Filed: 10/06/2023

No. 22-60466

I. Darling Ingredients, Inc. operates a chicken-rendering facility in Byram, Mississippi.1 One of the machines there is a “hydrolyzer,” or a contraption that uses pressurized steam to break down “poultry parts,” namely feathers and quills. The result is a digestible liquid known as “poultry meal” which Darling uses to make pet food. Like any machine, the hydrolyzer requires upkeep. Specifically, chicken parts regularly build up in the hydrolyzer and lead to “blockage[s].” When that happens, pressure becomes trapped and “caus[es] the whole [machine] to stop.” To get it running again, the hydrolyzer must be cleaned out. But to do that, the hydrolyzer’s pent-up pressure must be released first. Apparently, that can be done in a number of ways. An operator can “shuttl[e] the gates,” meaning he or she opens and closes a series of doors in the machine in a certain order, or unlatch a pressure-relief valve. A worker could also wait for the pressure to bleed off naturally, but that takes time. On August 10, 2020, the Unit A hydrolyzer at Darling’s facility became clogged, causing a pressure buildup. The machine’s operator “shuttl[ed] the gates,” but nothing happened. So he alerted his supervisor, and his supervisor called the maintenance team. Maintenance sent over three men—Fortenberry, Young, and Jackson. When they arrived on the scene, the trio tried the usual tricks—they shuttled the gates and opened the relief valve—but to no avail. So they cut the power to the hydrolyzer and “closed the steam valve” so that no more steam would flow into the machine. Then,

_____________________ 1 Such a facility “cuts and grinds accepted animal carcasses into small pieces, to be blended[,] cooked,” and “separated” into “[f]at, protein, and water,” which is used to make products like soap, cooking oils, and animal feed. Rendering Module, United States Department of Agriculture, www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/carcass/docs/training/7-rendering.pdf.

2 Case: 22-60466 Docu