The Board finds that the veteran's bilateral pes planus disability is incurred in service and not due to pre-existing conditions. The presumption of soundness applies, and the veteran is entitled to service connection for his bilateral flat feet.
The deciding factor: The evidence shows that the veteran had a pes planus deformity prior to entering service but it was aggravated by service, thus meeting the criteria for direct service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral Flat Feet (Pes Planus)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 19, 2006
- Citation
- 0614830
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,500 · Granted: 17% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted 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. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0614830.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board found that the Veteran's bilateral pes planus pre-existed military service and did not chronically worsen therein, thus denying service connection.
- Granted
The Board has granted a 30 percent rating for the Veteran's bilateral flat feet, effective from the date of his claim. The Veteran testified that his symptoms more nearly approximate the criteria for this higher rating.
- Granted
The veteran's service-connected right and left knee disabilities have been granted increased ratings, with the right knee now rated at 20 percent. The pes planus has also been granted a compensable rating of 20 percent. However, the surgical scars from the knees continue to be rated as noncompensable.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
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