Code of Alabama
Division 3 - Administration of Plan.
Section 45-37A-51.139 - Appeal of Decisions of the Board.

(a) Any decision of the board denying a benefit claimed may be subject to review by the circuit court, in the manner and subject to the limitations herein provided. An employee may secure a review of a decision of the board by mandamus proceedings in the circuit court, which proceedings the employee shall institute, in the court by filing therein a petition for mandamus. The petition may designate the board as respondent or the members thereof as respondents. Each respondent shall be served with process, unless the respondent or his or her or its attorney accepts service. The petition for mandamus shall be barred if it is not filed within 90 days from the date whereon the board of managers makes its final decision on the benefit claimed, provided written notice of such final decision of the board shall be given by certified or registered mail, postage prepaid, and properly addressed, to the claimant or his or her attorney within 10 days after such final decision of the board. If timely notice shall not be given as provided in the last preceding sentence, claimant shall not be barred from filing mandamus until the expiration of 80 days from the mailing of notice as above provided; but in no event, anything therein to the contrary notwithstanding, shall mandamus be filed after one year from the date of such final decision of the board; provided further that no final decision made by the board prior to January 1, 1969, shall be subject to review by mandamus or otherwise unless permitted by the law in effect at the time such decision was made and then only in the manner permitted by the law in effect on that date; provided further that any such final decision made by the board after January 1, 1969, and prior to May 1, 2006, shall be governed by the 80-day clause of the last preceding sentence, but in such case such mandamus proceeding shall not be filed after May 1, 2007. In the proceedings in the circuit court, any evidence relevant on any issue involved in the review shall be admissible, subject to the ordinary rules of evidence. If the submission in the mandamus proceedings is solely upon the proceedings before the board, the decision of the board upon all matters of fact shall be final and conclusive, unless it affirmatively appears that its decision is plainly and manifestly wrong.
(b) If in the circuit court evidence is received, in addition to that considered by the board, the decision of the board upon all matters of fact, nevertheless, shall be final and conclusive, except to the extent limited by the next following sentence. If the circuit court, after hearing all the evidence offered, determines that had the decision rendered by the board been rendered after hearing such evidence that such decision would not have been manifestly wrong, then the circuit court shall sustain the decision of the board; and if the circuit court, after considering all the evidence offered, determines that the decision rendered by the board would have been manifestly wrong had such decision been rendered after considering all the evidence considered by the circuit court, then in that event the circuit court shall render the decision which that court concludes should be rendered on all the evidence considered by that court. The provision of Section 45-37A-51.226, prohibiting a resolution of the board allowing an extraordinary disability benefit unless such resolution be passed within 12 months after the accident resulting in disability, or as otherwise provided herein, shall not be construed to prohibit the circuit court in a mandamus proceeding from rendering a judgment in favor of the claimant for extraordinary benefits even where the circuit court shall direct the board to adopt a resolution in favor of the claimant in compliance with the judgment of the circuit court.

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