The Board denied service connection for a cervical spine disability, finding that the evidence did not support an in-service injury or disease and that there was no chronicity of symptoms during service. The Veteran's current condition is not related to his service-connected left shoulder disability.
The deciding factor: The persuasive weight of the evidence was against a finding of an in-service cervical spine injury or disease, and there were no continuous symptoms since service separation. Additionally, the secondary service connection theory did not establish that the left shoulder disability caused or aggravated the cervical spine disability.
- Claimed conditions
- cervical spine osteoarthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 4, 2025
- Citation
- 25013661
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,200 · Granted: 43% (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 25013661.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's claimed disabilities are not related to his active service, including exposure to contaminants at Camp Lejeune or diabetes mellitus.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for multiple osteoarthritis conditions, headaches, an acquired psychiatric disorder, diabetes mellitus, sleep apnea, and gout based on the evidence showing a relationship to the Veteran's active duty service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is remanded for the following reasons: (1) The RO failed to associate VA treatment records from a non-VA provider with the claims file, which constitutes a pre-decisional error. (2) The issue of entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) was not developed prior to issuance of the June 2022 Supplemental Statement of the Case (SSOC).
- Granted
The Veteran is eligible for special monthly compensation (SMC) prior to December 5, 2019 and from July 1, 2021 due to his cervical spine disability. His other service-connected disabilities have a total combined rating of 60 percent or more.
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