Citation Nr: 1318516	
Decision Date: 06/06/13    Archive Date: 06/11/13

DOCKET NO.  08-01 138	)	DATE
	)
	)

On appeal from the
Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Columbia, South Carolina


THE ISSUE

Entitlement to a total disability rating for compensation based on individual unemployability.


REPRESENTATION

Veteran represented by:	John R. Worman, Attorney


WITNESS AT HEARING ON APPEAL

Veteran 

ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD

M. G. Mazzucchelli, Counsel




INTRODUCTION

The Veteran, who is the appellant, served on active duty from February 1966 to January 1968. 

This matter is before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal of a rating decision in June 2006 of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).  

In February 2009, the Veteran appeared at a hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge.  A transcript of the hearing is the Veteran's file. 

In April 2009, the Board remanded the claim for additional development. 

In a statement in October 2011, the Veteran asserted that he was unable to work due to his service-connected residuals of craniocerebral trauma with right frontal encephalomalacia.  In a decision in November 2011, the Board denied an initial rating higher than 10 percent for the service-connected residuals of craniocerebral trauma with right frontal encephalomalacia.  Pursuant to Rice v. Shinseki, 22 Vet. App. 447 (2009), Board remanded the claim for a total disability rating for compensation based on individual unemployability. 

The claim to reopen service connection for schizophrenia is raised by the record and the claim is referred to the RO for appropriate action. 

The appeal is REMANDED to the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office.  


REMAND

The Veteran contends that he is unable to work due to his service-connected residuals of craniocerebral trauma with right frontal encephalomalacia.  


Records of the Social Security Administration show that in September 1989 the Veteran was found disabled due to nonservice-connected schizophrenia.  

As the evidence of record is insufficient to decide the claim, further development under the duty to assist is needed.

Accordingly, the case is REMANDED for the following action:

1.  Afford the Veteran a VA examination to determine:

Whether it is more likely than not (greater than 50 percent probability), at least as likely as not (approximately 50 percent probability) or less likely than not (less than 50 percent probability) that the combination of the service-connected disabilities of craniocerebral trauma with right frontal encephalomalacia and burn scars of the left palm render the Veteran unable to secure or to follow substantially gainful employment.

The Veteran's file must be made available to the VA examiner. 

2.  Adjudicate the claim for a total disability rating for compensation based on individual unemployability on an extraschedular basis under 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(b).  If the benefit sought is denied, furnish the Veteran and his representative a supplemental statement of the case and return the case to the Board.







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).

The 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. 2010).



_________________________________________________
George E. Guido Jr.
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) (2010).