190717-13867

• Court: Board of Veterans' Appeals
• Decided: February 27, 2020
• Docket: 190717-13867
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

Citation Nr: AXXXXXXXX Decision Date: 02/27/20 Archive Date: 02/27/20

DOCKET NO. 190717-13867 DATE: February 27, 2020

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability, to include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from August 1982 to January 1986.

This matter is before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a rating decision issued in March 2019 by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).

The Board notes that the issues of entitlement to service connection for PTSD and service connection for anxiety and depression have been adjudicated separately in prior decisional documents. However, the Veteran, as a layperson, is not competent to distinguish between competing psychiatric diagnoses, and so a claim of service connection for one is considered a claim for all. Clemons v. Shinseki, 23 Vet. App. 1 (2009). As such, the Board will treat both issues as a single claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability generally.

By way of background, the RO denied entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability in a September 2015 rating decision and the Veteran timely perfected an appeal to the Board. 38 C.F.R. §§ 19.20, 19.21, 19.22. In March 2018, the Veteran opted-in to the modernized review system created by the Appeals Modernization Act (AMA) and elected higher level review. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.2400(c)(1), 3.2501(a)(1)(i), 3.2601.

The RO again denied service connection in a July 2018 higher-level review decision. In January 2019, the Veteran stated that he wished to file a supplemental claim along with new and relevant evidence. 38 C.F.R. § 3.2501. In response the RO issued another rating decision in February 2019, in which the RO stated that while new and relevant evidence had been submitted the denial of service connection for a psychiatric disability was confirmed and continued. In July 2019, the Veteran appealed to the Board, electing direct review of the issue of service connection for a psychiatric disability only. 38 C.F.R. §§ 20.201, 20.202(b)(1), 20.301. As the RO has already determined that new and relevant evidence was submitted along with the Veteran’s supplemental claim, the Board need not address that question here as a favorable finding has already been made.

1. Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability.

As part of his initial claim for service connection, the Veteran provided a stressor statement in which he reported that he witnessed a fellow soldier die in a training accident while stationed in Germany in 1984. In April 2015 correspondence, VA requested that the Veteran identify the unit to which he was assigned at the time of the death. In return correspondence received the same month, the Veteran provided the requested information. However, it does not appear that VA then made any further attempts to verify the reported stressor prior to issuing the rating decision on appeal. As some medical records indicate a link between the alleged stressor and the Veteran’s current psychiatric diagnoses, a remand is necessary so that appropriate steps may be taken to attempt to verify the Veteran’s reported stressors. The failure to complete this development was a pre-decisional error.

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

Contact all appropriate records centers in order to attempt to verify the Veteran’s claimed stressors, in particular the death of a fellow soldier while the Veteran was stationed in Germany.

Nathaniel J. Doan

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board C. Wendell, Counsel

The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.