The Veteran's appeal for an increased rating and earlier effective date for service-connected duodenal ulcer disease has been dismissed due to the Veteran's death.
The deciding factor: The Veteran died during the pendency of his appeals, making it impossible to adjudicate the merits of the claims.
- Claimed conditions
- duodenal ulcer disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 14, 2020
- Citation
- 20002542
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,454 · Granted: 23% (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 20002542.
What this means for you
A dismissal means the Board did not decide the issue on its merits — usually because it was withdrawn or had become moot. It says more about procedure than about whether a claim like this can win.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to inadequate opinions on whether the inguinal hernia is related to service or if it was aggravated by a pre-existing duodenal ulcer disease.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected duodenal ulcer disease and incisional abdominal hernia prevented him from obtaining and retaining substantially gainful employment for the period prior to December 16, 2016. The Board granted a TDIU on an extraschedular basis due to the combined effect of his disabilities.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claims for a higher disability rating in excess of 60 percent and an earlier effective date prior to May 13, 2013, were dismissed as the Veteran did not have any pending claims at the time of his death.
- Denied
The Board has denied a higher rating for duodenal ulcer disease and a compensable rating for prostatitis, finding that the Veteran's conditions do not meet the criteria for these ratings based on the evidence of record.
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