The claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death is granted. The claim for accrued benefits based on service connection for lung cancer is also granted. However, the DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1318 claim is dismissed as the Veteran was not rated totally disabled at the time of his death.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the evidence was in equipoise regarding whether the Veteran was exposed to herbicides during service and whether lung cancer resulted from service, leading to a finding of service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death. The accrued benefits claim is granted as the Veteran filed an original claim prior to his death. However, DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1318 was not warranted due to the Veteran's non-service-connected death.
- Claimed conditions
- lung cancer
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 8, 2020
- Citation
- A20015348
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,886 · Granted: 24% (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 A20015348.
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
The Veteran's claim for a higher evaluation of his service-connected chronic fatigue and weakness due to chemotherapy and radiation treatment for lung cancer is granted, with an evaluation of 60 percent.,The Veteran's claim for a compensable rating for residuals of lung cancer from May 1, 2005 is denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a need for further evaluation of the Veteran's lung cancer and its relationship to service, including any in-service granuloma.
- Dismissed
The Board has vacated its decisions granting service connection for lung cancer and remanding issues of tinnitus and TDIU, but the Veteran's death means these appeals are dismissed.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for kidney cancer and lung cancer due to a lack of adequate medical opinion regarding the etiology of his kidney cancer, which is presumed to be related to herbicide exposure. The claim for lung cancer is inextricably intertwined with the kidney cancer claim.
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