Georgia Dep’t of Cmty. Health v. Houston Hosps., Inc., 372 Ga. App. 218, 904 S.E.2d 70 (2024)
In this case, the commissioner fully adopted 15 of the hearing officer’s findings of fact, but expressly modified 25 of his findings of fact. While the commissioner’s order initially recited the appropriate standard for such modifications — that the findings of fact were not based upon any competent substantial evidence — the commissioner did not apply the standard correctly. First, the commissioner did not find with particularity that the evidence cited by the hearing officer in support of his findings of fact was inadmissible and thus not competent.
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On remand, the commissioner ignored our ruling and reversed the hearing officer’s conclusion that the project would not have a positive relationship to the existing healthcare delivery system. That was error. “[U]nder the law of the case rule, any ruling by the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals in a case shall be binding in all subsequent proceedings in that case in the lower court and in the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals, as the case may be.”
