The VA denied the veteran's widow's claim for benefits under Section 156 of Public Law 97-377, finding that the onset of her husband's lung cancer was not prior to August 13, 1981.
The deciding factor: The date of onset of the service-connected lung carcinoma was after August 13, 1981.
- Claimed conditions
- Lung carcinoma
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- January 16, 2003
- Citation
- 0300952
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,175 · Granted: 22% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
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 0300952.
What this means for you
A final Board denial may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, generally within 120 days of the Board mailing date. A Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence is a separate option. Another Higher-Level Review of the Board decision is not available. Check your own notice: this historical decision does not set your deadline.
What you can do next
Use your own notice and decision stage. A remanded issue is not a final court-appealable denial. VA review guidance and CAVC filing instructions (U.S. federal; reviewed October 7, 2026).
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's death was not caused by any service-connected disability, and therefore denied entitlement to service connection for the cause of his death.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his death was not related to active service or any incident of service.,The Appellant's annual income exceeded the Maximum Annual Pension Rate (MAPR) throughout the appeal period, thus denying her eligibility for non-service-connected death pension benefits.
- Whole decision: Denied
The veteran's death was caused by lung carcinoma, which is not service-connected. The Board denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the veteran's death.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board found that the veteran's death was not caused by or related to his service-connected shell fragment wounds and therefore denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the veteran's death.
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