The Board denied the appellant's claim seeking recognition as the Veteran's surviving spouse, finding that her marriage to the Veteran was terminated by a divorce judgment in March 1986 and she did not meet the definition of a surviving spouse for VA death benefits.
The deciding factor: The evidence submitted since the January 2009 decision does not relate to unestablished facts necessary to substantiate the appellant's claim, as it only documents that a divorce decree could not be found in a limited records search and fails to raise a reasonable possibility of substantiating her claim for recognition as the Veteran's surviving spouse.
- Claimed conditions
- Not specified in this decision
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 22, 2017
- Citation
- 1753550
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 1753550.
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