FROM THE HENRY JAMES FORD MEMORIAL VARO IN DETROIT

Sometimes those funny VLJs just think that the CAVC is funning them. Therefore they feel obligated to fun the CAVC right back. After two “funnings” the BVA finally gets the impression that maybe the Court isn’t “funning” anymore and it requires actual action on their part to find out what will appease them. This time it means they will be required to  remand it down to the AOJ for a physical C&P because they’ve been denying Donny Detroit without the evidence to back it up. Funny how you can deny again and again   based solely on non-evidence.  vA is rapidly finding out nobody’s laughing any more. Time to roll up the sleeves and actually get to work and earn the money. Imagine denying an increase for 9 years and then finally being called on it. Those neanderthals at the Court are just unbearable.

The case has been before the Board on numerous occasions. In February 2008, the Board denied entitlement to the benefit sought. Pursuant to a joint motion for remand (JMR), the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court) vacated the Board’s decision and remanded the case for action consistent with its directives in April 2009. The Board re-adjudicated the Veteran’s claim and, after ensuring compliance with the Court’s order, again denied the benefit sought in a June 2010 decision. The Veteran again appealed to the Court, and pursuant to a memorandum decision published in January 2012, the Board’s 2010 decision was vacated. This remand serves to effectuate the Court’s January 2012 order.

The appeal is REMANDED to the RO.

Somehow I suspect a lot of new and material evidence will result in a new rating this time. After spending more than they’ll ever pay out on this over nine years, they are going to finally make it right. The Vet actually outlived the JMRs and the remands! I’d point out too that they cannot rescind this rating as it’s over twenty years old. I’m sure they tried for nine years to find a way around that, though.

The appellant, through his agent, has argued that there is evidence sufficient to trigger the need for VA to obtain an examination. Specifically, the appellant has contended that he had elevated liver enzymes as early as 1976, and that as a biopsy was ordered, there was, at a minimum, some suspicion of active symptoms of liver damage at that time. Further, it was argued that as the Veteran filed a claim in 1978 for his hepatitis, he must have consequently been experiencing some sort of symptomatology at that time. There is an August 2000 VA clinical note which documents abdominal pain that had been ongoing, and there is a mention that such pain is similar to hepatitis-related complaints made in 1995. Despite this, there are virtually no clinical records of hepatitis treatment, save for what has been noted, prior to August 2000.

Oh. That evidence. Oh well, why  didn’t you ask us to look at that evidence before?  We would have if you’d asked. Stupid Vets. They must think we’re mindreaders down here at the RO. Sorry. Gomer. They don’t pay us well enough to hire Kreskin.