Citation Nr: 1303755 Decision Date: 02/04/13 Archive Date: 02/08/13 DOCKET NO. 09-32 367A ) DATE ) ) On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in New York, New York THE ISSUES 1. Entitlement to service connection for recurrent low back pain. 2. Whether new and material evidence has been received to reopen service connection for a neck injury. 3. Whether new and material evidence has been received to reopen service connection for head trauma with residual headaches. REPRESENTATION Appellant represented by: Disabled American Veterans ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD Catherine Cykowski, Counsel INTRODUCTION The Veteran (Appellant or Claimant) had active duty service from August 1979 to August 1983. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a February 2009 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in New York, New York. The appeal is REMANDED to the RO via the Appeals Management Center (AMC) in Washington, DC. REMAND The Veteran was scheduled for a Travel Board hearing to be held at the RO on April 13, 2011. The RO notified the Veteran of the hearing in a March 2011 letter. In correspondence received by the RO on March 25, 2011, more than two weeks prior to the scheduled Travel Board hearing, the Veteran indicated that he was going to have abdominal surgery and would require six weeks of recovery. He requested that the Travel Board hearing be rescheduled. An appellant or representative may request a change in Travel Board hearing date at any time up to two weeks prior to the scheduled date of the hearing if good cause is shown. If good cause is shown, the hearing will be rescheduled for the next available hearing date after the appellant or representative gives notice that the contingency which gave rise to the request for postponement has been removed. See 38 C.F.R. § 20.704(c) (2012). In this case, the Veteran's request to reschedule the Travel Board hearing, which was received by the RO more than two weeks prior to the scheduled hearing date, was accompanied by an explanation of good cause for inability to attend the upcoming April 2011 Travel Board. The Veteran informed the RO that he would have abdominal surgery in April 2011 that would require six weeks to recover. For these reasons, a remand is necessary to reschedule a Travel Board hearing. Accordingly, the case is REMANDED for the following action: Schedule the Veteran for a Travel Board hearing at the RO. Thereafter, the claims file should be returned to the Board in accordance with current appellate procedures. The Veteran has the right to submit additional evidence and argument on the matter the Board has remanded. Kutscherousky v. West, 12 Vet. App. 369 (1999). This claim must be afforded expeditious treatment. The law requires that all claims that are remanded by the Board of Veterans' Appeals or by the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims for additional development or other appropriate action must be handled in an expeditious manner. See 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 5109B, 7112 (West Supp. 2011). _________________________________________________ J. PARKER Veterans Law Judge, Board of Veterans' Appeals Under 38 U.S.C.A. § 7252 (West 2002), only a decision of the Board of Veterans' Appeals is appealable to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. This remand is in the nature of a preliminary order and does not constitute a decision of the Board on the merits of your appeal. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1100(b) (2012).