Whether the appeal became moot after the authority reconsidered and replaced its contested decision
Yes. The authority issued a new decision replacing the contested opposition decision, so the appeal lost its object and had to be removed from the docket.
Under Art. 53(3) LPGA and Art. 83 LPA-VD, the insurer could reconsider its decision before forwarding its response to the appellate court. Since a new pronouncement of 4 December 2014 annulled and replaced the prior decision, there was no longer any live dispute.