The Veteran's claim to reopen the finally disallowed bilateral ankle/lower leg condition is granted. The issue of service connection for a bilateral ankle/lower leg condition, which was previously denied due to lack of evidence linking it to service or service-connected pes planus, is remanded and reopened based on new evidence showing that his current ankle/lower leg conditions may be aggravated by his service-connected bilateral foot disability.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's ankle/lower leg conditions are found to be at least as likely as not aggravated by his service-connected bilateral pes planus.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral ankle/lower leg condition (pilon fractures), bilateral ankle sprains
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 1, 2019
- Citation
- 19107974
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,421 · Granted: 29% (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 19107974.
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.
- Granted
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- Denied
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- Denied
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- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran does not have a hearing loss disability for VA purposes and did not have a current ankle disability during his period of service. Therefore, he is not entitled to service connection for these conditions.
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