McNeely v. Brown

95-1000 (Vet. App. filed April 1, 1996) ; Clearinghouse Number: 51117

Description

Surviving Spouse Cites New Evidence of Veteran's Service-Connected Gastrointestinal Disease

Abstract

Appellant, the surviving spouse of a veteran, has filed her brief appealing the denial by the Department of Veterans Administration (VA) of veteran's application for pension and compensation benefits. During active wartime military service, veteran experienced gastrointestinal bleeding. He was discharged due to a disability purported to be "psychoneurosis, hypochondrial type, severe." His multiple applications for VA benefits beginning in 1944 were denied because he did not meet the 90-day requirement of service and/or the alternative criteria for discharge due to a service-connected disability. Appellant appealed veteran's 1990 application denial to the Board of Veterans Appeals, which determined that the new evidence in support of reopening his claim, namely, medical treatises establishing a link between veteran's gastrointestinal bleeding and medications received during military hospitalization, was not material and refused to reopen the claim. On appeal, appellant argues that VA's prior denials of the existence of gastric ulcer and gastrointestinal bleeding erred in that they did not apply the legal presumptions required by the relevant statutes and regulations in effect at the time. Appellant also argues that, even if they had not been clearly and unmistakably erroneous, new and material evidence of a link between medications veteran received during service and the gastrointestinal disease he suffered demonstrates a causal service connection.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Appellant represented by Mary Ellen McCarthy, Nevada Indian Rural Legal Services, 111 W. Telegraph Ave., Suite 202, Carson City, NV 89703, (702) 883-7066.
Docket Date
1970-01-01 06:00:00+00:00

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