An administrative law judge of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission affirmed a citation and $12,675 penalty assessed against a general contractor for a fatal crane accident.

Greenwood Village, Colorado-based general contractor Century Communities Inc. was cited in February 2017 following a fatality investigation conducted by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in response to a residential construction site accident that killed one worker and seriously injured another, according to commission documents released on Tuesday. The accident occurred when a crane operator brought the boom of the crane too close to energized overhead power lines, causing an electrical arc.

The agency cited Century as the controlling employer for a serious violation for failing to protect employees from electrical shock hazards and proposed a $12,675 fine, which the general contractor contested in a February hearing before the administrative law judge. Century argued that the Secretary of Labor failed to establish that the general contractor’s employees had access to the hazardous condition or that the company knew of the violative conduct.

But the company’s argument ignores the agency’s multiemployer doctrine, the law judge said in affirming the citation and proposed penalty. In 1999, OSHA issued a multiemployer citation policy directive clarifying conditions under which it may cite creating, exposing, correcting and controlling employers. The creating employer creates a hazard that violates an OSHA standard, the exposing employer exposes its employees to a hazard it caused or one caused by another employer, the correcting employer has responsibility for fixing the hazard, and the controlling employer has general supervisory authority over the entire worksite, meaning the employer is able to correct violations or have them corrected.

“Century’s construction manager could foresee the danger to the subcontractors’ employees of the crane’s boom or cable contacting the energized power lines or coming close enough to create an electrical arc flash,” the law judge said in the ruling. “I find the employees working on Lot 51 the morning of Oct. 12, 2016, had access to the violative condition of the crane coming within 20 feet of the energized power lines. Century, as controlling employer, owed the subcontractors’ employees a duty of care.”

Edwin Foulke, an Atlanta-based partner at Fisher & Phillips L.L.P. who represents the company, said the company was disappointed the review commission did not accept its petition for discretionary review and is exploring its options for a possible appeal to federal court.