Citation Nr: 18140677
Decision Date: 10/05/18	Archive Date: 10/04/18

DOCKET NO. 16-09 894
DATE:	October 5, 2018


ORDER
The appeal seeking entitlement to accrued benefits, to include reimbursement of the expense of last sickness and burial, is dismissed. 
FINDING OF FACT
In September 2018, VA received notification that the appellant died in March 2017.  
CONCLUSION OF LAW
Due to the death of the appellant, the Board has no jurisdiction to adjudicate the merits of the appeal at this time.  38 U.S.C. § 7104(a); 38 C.F.R. § 20.1302.




REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty from June 1965 to June 1968.  He died in May 2011.  The appellant was his mother. 
This matter is before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a May 2013 decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).
Unfortunately, the appellant died during the pendency of the appeal.  As a matter of law, appellants’ claims do not survive their deaths. Zevalkink v. Brown, 102 F.3d 1236, 1243-44 (Fed. Cir. 1996); Smith v. Brown, 10 Vet. App. 330, 333-34 (1997); Landicho v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 42, 47 (1994).  This appeal on the merits has become moot by virtue of the death of the appellant and must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.  38 U.S.C. § 7104(a); 38 C.F.R. § 20.1302.
In reaching this determination, the Board intimates no opinion as to the merits of this appeal or to any derivative claim brought by a survivor of the Veteran or appellant.  38 C.F.R. § 20.1106. 






The Board’s dismissal of this appeal does not affect the right of an eligible person to file a request to be substituted as the appellant for purposes of processing the claim to completion.  The Board recognizes that the appellant’s daughter has an application for Accrued Amounts Due a Deceased Beneficiary.  However, the Board is precluded from making the initial substitution eligibility determination and it must initially be addressed by the Agency of Original Jurisdiction.  See 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.1010 and 3.103.   
 
M. SORISIO
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	S. Patel, Associate Counsel