The Veteran's appeal for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability, including substance use disorder and PTSD due to military sexual trauma, is dismissed as the Veteran died during the pendency of his appeal.
The deciding factor: The Veteran died during the pendency of his appeal, thus the Board has no jurisdiction to adjudicate the merits of this appeal at this time.
- Claimed conditions
- acquired psychiatric disability, substance use disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder due to military sexual trauma
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 28, 2026
- Citation
- A26007723
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 A26007723.
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A dismissal means the Board did not decide the issue on its merits — usually because it was withdrawn or had become moot.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 has granted service connection for the Veteran's substance use disorder as secondary to his service-connected PTSD, finding that the Veteran's abuse of substances was a result of his PTSD.
- Denied
The Veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, including a left wrist fracture, bilateral hearing loss, Type II diabetes, bilateral glaucoma, OSA, cervical disc herniation, and other musculoskeletal issues are denied.,Service connection is not established for any of the claimed conditions.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for his acquired psychiatric disability, finding that it is at least as likely as not due to or the result of his other service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for hypertension, equilibrium disorder (claimed as bad balance and equilibrium), bilateral restless leg syndrome, bilateral upper extremity tremor, melanoma, and acquired psychiatric disability due to a lack of adequate medical opinions regarding exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune and Agent Orange in Japan.
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