The appeal of entitlement to service connection for hearing loss was dismissed due to an untimely notice of disagreement, while the appeal for depression, secondary to sleep apnea, is remanded for further evidence.
The deciding factor: The December 2021 NOD was not timely as it did not correspond to a decision regarding hearing loss, and thus the appeal for this issue must be dismissed. The appeal for depression, however, requires additional medical evidence due to inadequacies in the previous VA opinion.
- Claimed conditions
- Depression, to include as secondary to service-connected sleep apnea, Hearing loss
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 20, 2025
- Citation
- A25045014
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 837 · 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 A25045014.
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A dismissal means the Board did not decide the issue on its merits — usually because it was withdrawn or had become moot.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 Veteran's hearing loss and low back strain claims are remanded for further evaluation. The hearing loss claim is denied, while the low back strain claim requires additional examination to determine its severity.
- Granted
The Veteran's entitlement to higher level of SMC at the intermediate rate is granted, effective from January 8, 2021. He was previously in need of aid and attendance due to his left knee disability since February 1, 2017, and now has additional disabilities rated at 50 percent or more.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for hearing loss, finding that the Veteran's current hearing loss disability is not related to military noise exposure and there is no evidence of a nexus between in-service noise exposure and his current condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the hearing loss claim due to incomplete records and the need for a VA examination. The Veteran's hearing loss may be related to service or secondary to his service-connected cerumen impaction.
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