I’m sure we’ve all heard that one before down at Piggly Wiggly. Whoa there, hoss. That’s going to have to change. The name just drips fat-shaming and small airline seats. I’m sure  the wokefolks will be along directly to ask them to consider a more kind and gentle brand name. But that’s not what I called you here today for. Nope. Not for Father’s Day either. Below is one of those appeals that has never happened to me in my brief career using my new super power for the betterment of Veterans. Read on.

Back last summer, July 6th to be specific, I filed two disparate NOD 10182s. Both were for the same Vet but the subject matter was vastly different. One was for an earlier effective date ratings percentage. I’d already won the earlier 2002 date for the claim. We were just squabbling over the ratings percentage for his Parkinson’s.

The second NOD was a CUE. I hate to file CUEs. You just know it’s destined for the BVA if it involves SMC in any way, shape or form. I’d won the a&a and was merely “cleaning up” the assigned rating. It was a simple, straight-forward bump case under §3.350(f)(3) for two months and another eleven months up at SMC M (full-step bump under (f)(4).

I’m a silver-tongued devil at a HLR in most subjects but when you run into a booth bitch with no SMC comprehension who only sees you as a welfare cheat or trailer trash, that’s all she wrote. And boy howdy that’s pretty much what she wrote. I’m not sure what manual or book of CFRs she consulted but apparently, it/they didn’t contain anything on §3.350/§1114 . I got the 30- minute treatment. That’s how long it took to write up the denial and publish it in VBMS. I watched it happen in real time. It probably wasn’t even her personal best time either. This chick was ice cream brain freeze cold.

So, having struck out in St. Pete’s DROC, I headed up to the BVA with it. My mistake was in filing them both one right after the other. Both showed up a few days later in VBMS as having been received but I only got one AMA letter saying “it” had been docketed in the direct venue. I decided to cut bait and wait. Big mistake. Being pretty busy, it slipped my mind. Well, at least until December of 2022 when the other BVA appeal popped back up in the infeed with a remand. As you can read below, the VLJ noted there was another appeal docketed and pending, but in the new AMA, the VA can’t possibly digest two appeals at the same time without getting the vapors.

redact BVA 12.22 remand

I began pestering them in March that my boy was terminal and reminded them he was advanced on the docket. I got a nastygram from the BVA Litigation and Support krewe saying “We already decided that one, dummy.” and enclosed a new copy of the December remand. At some point I think I may have sent my own nastygram inquiring of their possible wolf parentage and suggestions to check in with Ancestry.com™.  The commo went dark for a while and then I shotgunned one of those emails off with a cc: to the VLJ who wrote the decision (the Honorable Ryan T. Kessel) mentioning the CUE was still pending. Boom Shaka laka laka. That did it.

 The BVA apologist called back and said they were flat ass on it. I couldn’t see it in CASEFLOW so I started throwing rocks at the CASEFLOW window. Wonder of wonders. In this now-AMA world we live in, this July 2022 NOD had segued into a Legacy NOD and was hiding in VACOLS. I attach it here below. Check out the Docket No. -23-00 162. I read that to be the one hundred sixtysecondth cleanup at 425 I Street NW this spring.

redact BVA grant for ^ SMC M

All’s well that ends well. Harry got his just deserts in this, his last CUE and we have the one last matter of being desirous of a rating which renders a decision granting every benefit that can be supported in law while protecting the interests of the Government. The VA examiners get a little too hasty after they grant a claim. SMC, being an ancillary benefit, simply doesn’t come up on their radar unless you whack ’em upside the head and remind them. Even then, I frequently end up having to go up to the Big House to find legal minds who can read with greater comprehension.

As for old retros back to 2002, we all understand VA’s recalcitrance about conceding such a large error. It really isn’t that much money in the scheme of things. I heard a few days ago in a congressional hearing they (VA) allowed as they disremembered where they put $3.4 billion last year. That’s a shit ton of disremembering in my book but maybe I’m just one of them small-minded thinkers who doesn’t get the big picture.

redact filed 10182 5.26.2023

Happy Father’s Day to you who procreated. Oh what the hey. Happy Fathers Day to all of you who identify as a ‘father’. Did I get that right?