The appeal for service connection for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is dismissed due to the Veteran's death.
The deciding factor: The appeal was dismissed due to the Veteran's passing during the pendency of the appeal, as per 38 C.F.R. § 20.1302.
- Claimed conditions
- idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 31, 2025
- Citation
- A25029394
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A dismissal means the Board did not decide the issue on its merits — usually because it was withdrawn or had become moot.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.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for pulmonary hypertension as secondary to the Veteran's already service-connected idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, as well as claims for Dependency and Indemity Compensation (DIC) under 38 U.S.C. § 1318, accrued benefits, and additional nonservice-connected burial benefits.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for cause of death to obtain an addendum opinion addressing the Veteran's prior medical history.
- Dismissed
The appeal for service connection for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was dismissed as the Board had already granted it in a previous decision, and the AOJ assigned an effective date of August 30, 2022.
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