The Board denied the appellant's claims for service connection for the cause of death and entitlement to DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1318, finding no new and material evidence to reopen the claim and that the Veteran was not entitled to a total disability rating for at least 5 years prior to his death.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the additional lay evidence received did not relate to an unestablished fact necessary to substantiate the claim as explained above, thus it is not new and material. The Veteran's service-connected disabilities were not rated totally disabling for any time period preceding his death, and he was not entitled to a total disability rating based on hypothetical entitlement.
- Claimed conditions
- hypertensive cardiovascular disease, gunshot wound (GSW) residuals to the left hip and right foot
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 5, 2009
- Citation
- 0908216
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,592 · Granted: 19% (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 0908216.
What this means for you
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's hypertension is related to herbicide exposure during service and contributed substantially to his cause of death.,Service connection for both hypertension and the cause of death (hypertensive cardiovascular disease) is granted.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death and entitlement to VA DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1151 due to a need for further evaluation regarding the relationship between any identified pulmonary/respiratory disability, including bronchial asthma, and active service.
- Denied
The Board has denied service connection for the cause of death and remanded the issue of a compensable disability rating for bilateral defective hearing.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided that the cause of the Veteran's death is related to his service-connected disabilities, but further medical opinion is needed to determine if these conditions contributed substantially or materially to his death.
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