The Board has granted service connection for the cause of the veteran's death, but cannot assign an effective date earlier than November 1, 1996 due to the finality of a previous denial and lack of evidence establishing a direct link between the service-connected condition and the cause of death.
The deciding factor: The March 1966 Board decision was final as it denied service connection for the cause of the veteran's death. The January 1998 rating decision granted service connection based on new medical opinions, but could not assign an earlier effective date due to the lack of evidence establishing a direct link between the service-connected condition and the cause of death.
- Claimed conditions
- psychoneurosis, anxiety type
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 15, 2000
- Citation
- 0006932
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Search VA.gov for the original decision (opens in a new tab) using citation 0006932.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board allowed the benefit or issue identified in this decision. Review the original order: other issues in the same appeal may have a different outcome, and this decision does not predict another claim.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected psychiatric disability, which included anxiety disorder and smoking tobacco as a symptom of the disability, is found to have substantially contributed to his cause of death from an acute myocardial infarction due to coronary atherosclerosis.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is remanded due to incomplete and inconsistent evidence regarding the severity of his acquired psychiatric disorder, including private treatment records and VA examination reports. The case will be further developed to determine if a higher rating than 50 percent may be assigned.
- Denied
The Board denied a rating in excess of 30 percent for the Veteran's service-connected psychoneurosis, anxiety type.
- Granted
The Board finds that the evidence is at least in equipoise as to whether the veteran's service-connected psychiatric disorder contributed to his death, thus granting entitlement to service connection for the cause of the veteran's death.
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