The Board denied recognition of the appellant as the Veteran's surviving spouse for VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) benefit purposes due to a prior divorce, finding that the appellant no longer meets the requirements of a valid marriage.
The deciding factor: The appellant and the Veteran had divorced before the Veteran’s death, which terminated their marital status and prevented the appellant from being recognized as his surviving spouse for VA benefits.
- Claimed conditions
- Not specified in this decision
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 14, 2020
- Citation
- 20002650
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 961 · Granted: 20% (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 20002650.
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