b) Death of examiner between oral proceedings and written decision 

In T 1170/05 one of the examiners had died and so the decision of the first instance bore the signatures of only two of the three members of the division, the Chair signing on behalf of the deceased examiner. The Chair explicitly declared in a note that the written grounds reflected those which had been discussed during the deliberation of the examining division, and which had led to the decision announced at the end of the oral proceedings. This was held to comply with the case law of the boards of appeal, in particular, T 243/87 (see in this chapter III.K.1.3.2); the decision was valid.