The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for a back condition and arthritis, finding insufficient evidence to link these conditions to his military service.
The deciding factor: The VA medical examiner concluded that the current back condition is more likely related to post-service labor-intensive work than an in-service injury. For arthritis, there was no competent medical opinion linking it to service.
- Claimed conditions
- back condition, arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 21, 2019
- Citation
- 19188155
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,062 · Granted: 34% (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 19188155.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for tinnitus, arthritis, and memory loss. The decision found no evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a back condition, including degenerative disc disease and scoliosis, due to lack of current disability evidence.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal for service connection for sleep apnea has been dismissed due to the withdrawal of his request.,Service connection for a back condition is denied as there is no evidence that the condition began during service or is related to an in-service injury, event, or disease.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death and entitlement to DIC due to a failure to obtain a medical opinion prior to the rating decision on appeal regarding whether the Veteran's arthritis was related to his period of active service, and if so, whether it contributed to his death.
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