Citation Nr: 18154626 Decision Date: 11/30/18 Archive Date: 11/30/18 DOCKET NO. 16-62 903 DATE: November 30, 2018 ORDER New and material evidence not having been received, the petition to reopen the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death is denied. FINDING OF FACT 1. In a final decision issued in August 2007, the RO denied the appellant’s claim of entitlement to service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death. She did not express timely disagreement with the decision, and new and material evidence was not submitted within one year of the notice of that decision. 2. Additional evidence associated with the claims file since the August 2007 rating decision is cumulative or redundant of the evidence of record at the time of the prior denial, and/or does not relate to unestablished facts necessary to substantiate the claim for service connection for cause of death or raise a reasonable possibility of substantiating the appellant’s claim. CONCLUSION OF LAW 1. The August 2007 rating decision denying service connection for cause of death is final. 38 U.S.C. § 7105 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.104 (a), 20.1103 (2018). 2. New and material evidence has not been received to warrant reopening of the claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death. 38 U.S.C. § 5107 (2012); 38 C.F.R. § 3.156 (2018). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from May 1979 to June 1981. He died in December 2006. The appellant is his surviving spouse. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) from a May 2016 rating decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regional office. 1 New and Material Evidence for Entitlement to Service Connection for the Cause of the Veteran’s Death Generally, a claim that has been denied in an unappealed RO or Board decision may not thereafter be reopened and allowed. 38 U.S.C. §§ 7104(b), 7105(c) (2012). The exception is that if new and material evidence is presented or secured with respect to a claim which has been disallowed, VA shall reopen the claim and review the former disposition of the claim. 38 U.S.C. § 5108 (2012). New evidence is defined as evidence not previously submitted to agency decision-makers. Material evidence means existing evidence that, by itself or when considered with previous evidence of record, relates to an unestablished fact necessary to substantiate the claim. New and material evidence can be neither cumulative nor redundant of the evidence of record at the time of the last prior final denial of the claim sought to be reopened, and must raise a reasonable possibility of substantiating the claim. 38 C.F.R. § 3.156 (a) (2018). The regulation does not require new and material evidence as to each previously unproven element of a claim and creates a low threshold for reopening claims. 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(a) (2018); Shade v. Shinseki, 24 Vet. App. 110 (2010). For the purpose of determining whether new and material evidence has been submitted, the credibility of new evidence, although not its weight, is generally presumed. Justus v. Principi, 3 Vet. App. 510 (1992). An August 2007 rating decision denied entitlement to service connection for the cause of death of the Veteran based on a finding that the Veteran’s causes of death, noted on his death certificate as atrioventricular block, heart failure, and cardiomyopathy, and with conditions of importance that contributed to the Veteran’s death, but were not related to the cause of his death of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cocaine user, and alcoholism, were neither incurred in nor were caused or aggravated by service. That decision was not appealed, nor did the appellant submit new and material evidence within one year of notification to her of the decision. The Board finds that the evidence added to the record since the August 2007 rating decision is not new or material. The claim of entitlement to service connection for cause of death was previously denied because the medical conditions noted to have caused the Veteran’s death in December 2006- atrioventricular block, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, with significant conditions contributing to death listed as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cocaine user, and alcoholism -were not found to be etiologically related to active service. Additionally, the Veteran’s service connected disabilities at the time of his death were severe atopic dermatitis; schizophrenia, paranoid type; bronchial asthma associated with severe atopic dermatitis disability, were not found to have caused or contributed to his death. Evidence added to the record since the final August 2007 rating decision includes copies of service treatment records and military personnel records which were already associated with the claims file at the time of the final rating decision in August 2007. No other evidence in support of the claim was submitted by the appellant. The duplicate copies of records submitted are not new, as they were already of record in August 2007. Accordingly, the Board finds that new and material evidence has not been received to reopen the claim for entitlement to service connection for cause of death of the Veteran, and the petition to reopen the previously denied claim is denied. 38 U.S.C. § 5108 (2012); 38 C.F.R. § 3.156 (2018). BARBARA B. COPELAND Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD T. Grzeczkowicz, Associate Counsel