Boyer v. West

12 Vet. App. 142, 1999 U.S. Vet. App. LEXIS 107, 1999 WL 35012
CourtUnited States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
DecidedJanuary 27, 1999
DocketNo. 97-1194
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 12 Vet. App. 142 (Boyer v. West) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boyer v. West, 12 Vet. App. 142, 1999 U.S. Vet. App. LEXIS 107, 1999 WL 35012 (Cal. 1999).

Opinion

KRAMER, Judge:

On October 8, 1998, the Court issued an opinion affirming the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA or Board) decision in this case. On October 27, 1998, counsel for the appellant entered his appearance for the formerly pro se appellant and filed, on behalf of the appellant, a timely motion for reconsideration raising arguments against the Court’s decision that merit consideration. Accordingly, the appellant’s motion is granted. Upon consideration of the arguments raised by the appellant, the Court holds that its original decision remains valid and controlling and will not be withdrawn. See Boyer v. West, 11 Vet.App. 477 (1998). Hence, Part I of this opinion incorporates the analysis from the original opinion, and Part II of this opinion addresses additional arguments raised upon reconsideration.

I. OUR ORIGINAL OPINION

The relevant facts and law are addressed in the Court’s prior opinion and will be only briefly summarized here. The appellant has hearing loss in both ears but is not totally deaf in both ears. Hearing loss in only one of his ears is service connected. Section 1160(a), title 38 United States Code and 38 C.F.R. § 3.383 (1998) provide, inter alia, that non-service-connected hearing loss will be treated as service connected if the appellant is totally deaf in both ears. The Secretary in VA Gen. Coun. Prec. 32-97 (August 29, 1997) [hereinafter G.C. Prec. 32-97] has interpreted these provisions so as to treat non-service-connected hearing loss as normal hearing unless the veteran is totally deaf in both ears. In our original opinion, we sustained the Secretary’s interpretation and held that [143]*143the appellant’s non-service-connected hearing loss was not ratable. See Boyer, 11 Vet.App. at 480 (Secretary’s interpretation of section 1160(a) “is not inconsistent with the statutory mandate and does not frustrate the policy Congress sought to implement.” Hermogenes v. Brown, 9 Vet.App. 75, 78 (1996)).

II. ARGUMENTS UPON RECONSIDERATION

The appellant’s counsel makes numerous arguments in his motion for reconsideration. The Court will address each of them in turn.

A.Arguments Based Upon The Statutes

The appellant argues, in essence, that contrary to the Secretary’s interpretation in G.C. Prec. 32-97 and pursuant to 38 U.S.C. §§ 1155 and 1160, the disability arising from the appellant’s non-service-connected hearing loss should be a part of the rating provided for the disability attributable to the appellant’s service-connected hearing loss. As Hermogenes makes clear, the Court should give deference to the Secretary’s interpretation of the statute. Even assuming Hermogenes does not require such deference, the plain meaning of the relevant statutory sections defeats the appellant’s arguments. See Gardner v. Brown, 5 F.3d 1456, 1458 (Fed.Cir.1993) (“starting point in interpreting a statute is its language, for if the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter” (internal quotation marks omitted)), aff'd, 513 U.S. 115, 115 S.Ct. 552, 130 L.Ed.2d 462 (1994). Section 1160 authorizes compensation only for total deafness in both ears, which is not the case here. Section 1155 authorizes only a schedule of ratings to reflect reductions in earning capacity. Although section 1155 is silent as to whether these reductions must be predicated upon service-connected conditions, it is positioned in chapter 11, which deals with disability compensation. Entitlement to compensation under chapter 11 is governed by 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110 and 1131 which authorize compensation only for service-connected disabilities. Although the hearing loss in the non-serviceconneeted ear may very well contribute to the loss of earning capacity experienced by the appellant, because that condition is not service connected, compensation is precluded by sections 1110 and 1131. To the extent that the appellant argues that his service-connected hearing loss has sustained an increase in disability because of his non-ser-viee-connected hearing loss, the Court disagrees. Although his overall disability may be worse, the disability attributable to the service-connected hearing loss is predicated only on that loss. For example, if two people were to have the same service-connected disability and one of them were to have an additional non-service-connected disability and thus were to receive more compensation, that person would clearly be receiving compensation for the non-service-connected disability.

B.Arguments Based Upon The Regulations

First, the appellant argues that 38 C.F.R. § 4.85 (1998), which describes how to use the hearing loss charts does not include any special provision for considering as normal the hearing in an ear that suffers from non-service-connected hearing loss, nor does the relevant portion of VA’s Adjudication Procedure Manual M21-1 [hereinafter Manual M21-1], Part VI, ¶ 11.09 (Aug. 26, 1996). He concludes that a plain reading of these provisions suggests that hearing loss in both ears must be considered, and VA is not free to ignore its own regulations. However, “an agency’s interpretation of its own regulation is ‘of controlling weight unless it is plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation.’ ” Ramey v. Gober, 120 F.3d 1239 (Fed. Cir.1997) (quoting Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., 325 U.S. 410, 414, 65 S.Ct. 1215, 89 L.Ed. 1700 (1945)), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 118 S.Ct. 1171, 140 L.Ed.2d 181 (1998). While the appellant’s interpretation based only on the regulation is plausible, the Secretary’s interpretation, as outlined in G.C. Prec. 32-97 and as discussed in the Court’s original opinion, is also reasonable. More importantly, even if the Court were to assume that the Secretary intended to compensate for non-service-connected hearing loss beyond that provided by section 1160, in the absence of a statutory provision authorizing such compensation and given the limitation imposed by sections 1110 and 1131 restricting compensation to service-connected condi[144]*144tions, such a regulation would be invalid as exceeding the scope of the statute. See 38 U.S.C. § 7261(a)(3), (a)(3)(C) (granting Court power to hold unlawful “regulations issued or adopted ... in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations”); Cole v. Derwinski, 2 Vet.App. 400, 401-02 (1992) (regulations in excess of statutory authority are void).

Second, the appellant argues that G.C. Prec.

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Bluebook (online)
12 Vet. App. 142, 1999 U.S. Vet. App. LEXIS 107, 1999 WL 35012, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boyer-v-west-cavc-1999.