The Board remands the claims for service connection for a knee condition, shoulder condition, and respiratory condition due to a duty to assist error.
The deciding factor: The VA opinions provided were found inadequate as they did not consider all relevant theories of service connection including TERA or MUCMI under 38 C.F.R. § 3.317.
- Claimed conditions
- arthritis of the knee, arthritis of the shoulder, chronic cough, breathing issues, cough blood (respiratory condition)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Gulf War
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 17, 2025
- Citation
- A25109137
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,549 · Granted: 26% (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 A25109137.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection for pneumonia has been dismissed as the claim was recharacterized and granted in a previous rating decision.,Service connection for heart arrhythmia is denied. The Board found that there is no persuasive weight of evidence to support the Veteran's contention that his current condition is related to military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is being remanded for further development, including obtaining updated treatment records and an addendum opinion from the February 2018 VA examiner. The AOJ must also adjudicate his claim seeking service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder to include as secondary to service-connected disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is being remanded for scheduling a videoconference hearing before the Board of Veterans' Appeals.
- Denied
The Board has determined that there is no evidence to support the Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, arthritis of the finger, arthritis of the shoulder, cold weather residuals of the lower and upper extremities. The preponderance of the evidence is against finding any current disabilities are related to military service.
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