SECTION 67.91. Form, Content, and Service of Orders

(a) All final Orders of the Board or its designee shall be in writing and shall be signed by the chairman of the Board or by the Board's designee. A final decision shall include, adopt or reference findings of fact and conclusions of law separately stated. Findings of fact, if set forth in statutory language, shall be accompanied by a concise and explicit statement of the underlying facts supporting the findings.

(b) Acting in its capacity as fiduciary of the employee benefit plans for which it serves as trustee, the Board or its designee may, in their sole discretion, modify, refuse to accept, or delete any adopted finding of fact or conclusion of law, or make alternative findings of fact or conclusions of law, if it is determined by the Board or its designee that all or part of the proposal for decision submitted by the Examiner, or a adopted finding of fact or conclusion of law contained therein, is:

(1) clearly erroneous or illogical;

(2) against the weight of the evidence;

(3) based on a misapplication of the rules of evidence or an insufficient review of the evidence;

(4) based on a medical opinion that is not supported by objective medical evidence, or is not based on reasonable medical probability;

(5) inconsistent with the terms or intent, as determined by the Board or its designee, of an applicable statute, benefit plan or insurance policy provision;

(6) confusing, incomplete or misleading;

(7) immaterial or irrelevant to the issues; or

(8) not sufficient to protect the interests of the plans and programs for which the Board is trustee, or the interests, as a group, of the Members, retirees or participants covered by such plans and programs. The Order shall contain or reference a written statement of the reason and legal basis for each change made based on the foregoing policy reasons. Correction of nonsubstantive typographical errors do not need to be explained.

(c) A copy of the Board's or its designee's decision or Order shall be served on each Party or his Authorized Representative.

Source Note: The provisions of this §67.91 adopted to be effective March 19, 1986, 11 TexReg 1149; amended to be effective January 10, 1999, 24 TexReg 165; amended to be effective September 14, 2006, 31 TexReg 7359; amended to be effective December 24, 2015, 40 TexReg 9302