Ray Marshall, Secretary of Labor, U. S. Department of Labor, Plaintiff v. Elden Wait, Trading and D/B/A Elden Wait, Greenstone Quarry, Defendant

Wait appeals the granting of a permanent injunction against, inter alia, interference with the inspection of his quarry by representatives of the Secretary of Labor under the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, 30 U.S.C. § 801 , et seq. (hereafter “the 1977 Act”). The issuance of injunctions to prevent interference with mine safety inspections is authorized by 30 U.S.C. § 818 . We reverse.

Wait operates a rock quarry located in Amador County, California. The quarry, which has been in Wait’s family since around the turn of the century, produces approximately 1,500 tons of decorative rock per year. Wait and his wife work the quarry with no employees. All of the rock produced is sold on the quarry premises to distributors who market the rock elsewhere in California.

On September 15, 1977, two representa- . tives of the Secretary of the Interior approached Wait’s quarry and attempted to enter it for the purpose of making a safety inspection pursuant to the Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act of 1966, formerly 30 U.S.C. § 723 (1970), et seq. Although it is unclear whether the representatives properly identified themselves and their mission, it is…