CFR > Title 39 - Postal Service > CHAPTER I—UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE > SUBCHAPTER N—PROCEDURES (parts 912 to 966) > PART 955—RULES OF PRACTICE BEFORE THE POSTAL SERVICE BOARD OF CONTRACT APPEALS > 955.5—Preparation, contents, organization, forwarding, and status of appeal file.

955.5—Preparation, contents, organization, forwarding, and status of appeal file.

(a) Duties of the respondent. Within 30 days from receipt of the Board's docketing notice, or such other period as the Board may order, the respondent's counsel shall file with the Board an appeal file consisting of all documents pertinent to the appeal and shall provide a copy to the appellant. The appeal file shall include:
(1) The claim and contracting officer's final decision from which the appeal is taken;
(2) The contract, including pertinent specifications, amendments, plans and drawings;
(3) All correspondence between the parties pertinent to the appeal;
(4) Transcripts of any testimony taken during the course of proceedings, and affidavits or statements of any witnesses on the matter in dispute made prior to the filing of the notice of appeal with the Board; and
(5) Any additional information considered pertinent.
(b) Duties of the appellant. Within 30 days after receipt of a copy of the appeal file, the appellant shall supplement the appeal file by transmitting to the Board any documents not contained therein considered to be pertinent to the appeal, and shall furnish copies of such documents to Postal Service counsel.
(c) Organization of appeal file. Documents in the appeal file or supplement, as applicable, may be originals or legible copies thereof, and shall be arranged in chronological order where practicable, numbered sequentially, tabbed, and indexed to identify the contents. Page numbering shall be consecutive and continuous from one document to the next, so that the complete file or supplement, as applicable, will consist of one set of consecutively numbered pages.
(d) Lengthy documents. The Board may waive the requirement of furnishing to the other party copies of bulky, lengthy, or out-of-size documents in the appeal file when a party has shown that doing so would impose an undue burden. The party filing with the Board a document as to which such a waiver has been granted, shall notify the other party at the time of filing that the document is available for inspection at the offices of the Board or of the party.
(e) Status of documents in appeal file. Documents contained in the appeal file are considered, without further action by the parties, as part of the record upon which the Board will render its decision, unless a party objects to the consideration of a particular document. Unless otherwise provided by Board order, any such objection shall be made at least 10 days prior to a hearing or the date specified for settling the record in the event there is no hearing on the appeal. If timely objection to a document is made, the Board will rule upon its admissibility into the record as evidence in accordance with §§ 955.14 and 955.21.