The Board found that the veteran's injuries from the November 15, 1998 motor vehicle accident were due to his own willful misconduct and not incurred in line of duty.
The deciding factor: The evidence clearly demonstrated that the veteran was intoxicated at the time of the accident and any disability resulting from it was proximately and immediately due to his intoxication.
- Claimed conditions
- Spinal cord injury
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- June 2, 2006
- Citation
- 0616148
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,012 · Granted: 24% (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 0616148.
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: Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a spinal cord injury, loss of use of bilateral upper and lower extremities, and neurogenic bladder and bowel as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected right knee disability.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The Board has reopened the claim for service connection of a preexisting spinal cord injury due to new and material evidence received since the March 2009 rating decision. However, the case is remanded as further medical examination is needed to determine if the preexisting condition was aggravated by service.
- Whole decision: Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to a lack of complete private treatment records from the Medical Center of Plano regarding the Veteran's spinal cord injury. The Veteran must provide or authorize for release all relevant records, and if found necessary, a new medical opinion should be obtained.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for residuals of a spinal cord injury, as secondary to his service-connected Tourette’s syndrome. The decision also found that the Veteran's spinal cord injury is proximately due to his service-connected Tourette’s syndrome.
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