The appeal is remanded to obtain additional medical opinions on whether the veteran's obesity, caused by his service-connected knee condition, contributed to his right hip strain.
The deciding factor: The Board found a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error in not obtaining an addendum medical opinion addressing the role of obesity as an intermediate step between the service-connected knee condition and the claimed hip strain.
- Claimed conditions
- right hip strain, degenerative joint disease of the right knee
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 16, 2025
- Citation
- A25004284
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 713 · Granted: 31% (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 A25004284.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded several claims for further action, including effective date determinations and service connection determinations. The Veteran's service records from Portsmouth Naval Hospital are requested to be obtained.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for service connection of his right hip disability is denied as the earliest date of entitlement is April 21, 2025.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's current right hip disability is likely related to his service, granting him service connection for a right hip disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for tension headaches, cervical strain, lumbosacral strain, right hip strain, and left hip strain due to inadequate opinions regarding whether these conditions are aggravated by service-connected disabilities.
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