Citation Nr: 18151953
Decision Date: 11/21/18	Archive Date: 11/20/18

DOCKET NO. 16-29 667
DATE:	November 21, 2018
ORDER
Eligibility for necessary automobile adaptive equipment is granted.
FINDINGS OF FACT
1.  The Veteran was granted entitlement to an allowance for an automobile or other conveyance in a February 1970 rating decision.
2.  The Veteran has a service-connected disability of anatomical loss of both feet.  
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria for establishing eligibility for automobile adaptive equipment are met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 3901, 3902, 3903, 5103, 5103A, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.159, 3.350, 3.808, 17.156.
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty from December 1967 to February 1970.
Eligibility for necessary automobile adaptive equipment
The Veteran submitted a VA Form 21-4502 “Application for Automobile or Other Conveyance and Adaptive Equipment,” which was received by VA in March 2014.  VA sent the Veteran notice in December 2014 indicating that his claim must be denied because he had previously been granted entitlement to an allowance for automobile or other conveyance in March 1970.  The Veteran submitted a timely Notice of Disagreement stating that he was only appealing the part of his claim seeking eligibility/entitlement for necessary automobile adaptive equipment.
Financial assistance may be provided to an “eligible person” in acquiring an automobile or other conveyance and adaptive equipment, or automotive adaptive equipment only.  38 U.S.C. § 3902(a)(b).  One-time eligibility for financial assistance in the purchase of a vehicle, and basic entitlement to necessary adaptive equipment is warranted for a Veteran who has one of the following as the result of injury or disease incurred or aggravated during active service: (1) loss or permanent loss of use of one or both feet; (2) loss or permanent loss of use of one or both hands; (3) permanent impairment of vision of both eyes, meaning central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye, with corrective glasses, or central visual acuity of more than 20/200 if there is a field defect in which the peripheral field has contracted to such an extent that the widest diameter of visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees in the better eye; (4) severe burn injury precluding effective operation of an automobile; (5) amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; or, (6) for adaptive equipment only, ankylosis of one or both knees or one or both hips.  38 C.F.R. § 3.808.  
The Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 amended 38 U.S.C. § 3903 to allow for a second automobile or other conveyance allowance under specific circumstances.  The Veteran has not asserted, and the evidence of record does not otherwise reflect that the automobile previously purchased with assistance under Chapter 39 was destroyed as a result of a natural or other disaster, through no fault of the Veteran, and without receipt of other property insurance.  See 38 U.S.C. §3903.    
However, while financial assistance in the purchase of one automobile or other conveyance is limited to once, or potentially twice in a Veteran’s lifetime, eligibility for automobile adaptive equipment under Chapter 19 and reimbursement for the actual cost of adaptive equipment subject to specific items established from time to time by the Under Secretary for Health may be allowed multiple times subject to limitations as to how many allowances may be made in any 4-year period.  See 38 U.S.C. §§3901-3904; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.808, 17.156-17.158.
As there is no indication that the Veteran has received reimbursement under this chapter for automobile adaptive equipment within the 4-years preceding his application for this benefit, and the Veteran is entitled to receive VA compensation for the loss of both feet, he is found to be eligible for automobile adaptive equipment.     

 
MICHAEL MARTIN
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	A. Solomon, Counsel