Citation Nr: 18146265
Decision Date: 10/31/18	Archive Date: 10/30/18

DOCKET NO. 10-25 155
DATE:	October 31, 2018
ORDER
The appeal for entitlement to service connection for residuals of traumatic brain injury, to include Parkinson s disease, epilepsy, muscle spasms, and Lewy Body dementia, as due to lightning strike, is dismissed.
FINDING OF FACT
An October 4, 2018 Report of Death, received as response to an inquiry to the Social Security Administration, notified the Board that the appellant died in May 2018.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
Due to the death of the appellant, the Board has no jurisdiction at this time to adjudicate the merits of the appeal for entitlement to service connection for residuals of traumatic brain injury, to include Parkinson s disease, epilepsy, muscle spasms, and Lewy Body dementia, as due to lightning strike.  38 U.S.C. § 7104(a) (2012); 38 C.F.R. § 20.1302 (2017).
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran had active service from June 1964 to June 1967. 
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a March 2010 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Lincoln, Nebraska. 
In August 2012, the Veteran presented testimony at a hearing before a Veterans Law Judge other than the undersigned; a transcript of the hearing is associated with the record.  As this appeal is currently being dismissed for lack of jurisdiction due to the death of the Veteran, the case has been reassigned to the undersigned Veterans Law Judge for the limited purpose of issuing this dismissal.
Unfortunately, the appellant died during the pendency of the appeal.  An October 4, 2018 Report of Death, received in response to an inquiry to the Social Security Administration, notified the Board that the appellant died in May 2018.  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.  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.  Such request must be filed not later than one year after the date of the appellant’s death.  38 U.S.C. § 5121A; 38 C.F.R. § 3.1010(b).  A person eligible for substitution includes “a living person who would be eligible to receive accrued benefits due to the claimant under section 5121(a) of this title ….”  38 U.S.C. § 5121A; 38 C.F.R. § 3.1010(a).  An eligible party seeking substitution in an appeal that has been dismissed by the Board due to the death of the claimant should file a request for substitution with the VA office from which the claim originated (listed on the first page of this decision).  38 C.F.R. § 3.1010(b).
 
U. R. POWELL
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	M. Espinoza, Counsel