Citation Nr: 18156468
Decision Date: 12/11/18	Archive Date: 12/10/18

DOCKET NO. 16-58 563
DATE:	December 11, 2018
ORDER
Service connection for bilateral hearing loss disability is granted.
FINDING OF FACT
The Veteran’s current bilateral sensorineural hearing loss disability is at least as likely as not related to service.  
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria for service connection for bilateral hearing loss disability have been met.  38 U.S.C. § 1101, 1110, 1112; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303, 3.307, 3.309, 3.385.
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty for training from August to November 1972 and on active duty from December 1972 to September 1974.  He appeals for service connection for bilateral hearing loss disability.  VA is thankful for his service.
Establishing service connection generally requires medical or, in certain circumstances, lay evidence of: (1) a current disability; (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a nexus between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the present disability.  See Davidson v. Shinseki, 581 F.3d 1313 (Fed.Cir.2009); Hickson v. West, 12 Vet. App. 247, 253 (1999); Caluza v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 498, 506 (1995), aff'd per curiam, 78 F.3d 604 (Fed.Cir.1996) (table).
Service connection may be awarded on a presumptive basis for certain chronic diseases listed in 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(a) that manifest to a degree of 10 percent within 1 year of service separation or during service and then again at a later date.  38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b); see Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1337 (Fed.Cir.2013).  Organic disease of the nervous system, which includes sensorineural hearing loss, is listed as a chronic disease.  Evidence of continuity of symptomatology may be sufficient to invoke this presumption if a claimant demonstrates (1) that a condition was “noted” during service; (2) evidence of postservice continuity of the same symptomatology; and (3) medical or, in certain circumstances, lay evidence of a nexus between the present disability and the postservice symptomatology.  Barr v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 303, 307 (2007) (citing Savage v. Gober, 10 Vet. App. 488, 496–97(1997)); see 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b).
Resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the Board concludes that service connection is warranted for the Veteran's currently diagnosed bilateral sensorineural hearing loss disability.  A November 2014 VA examination report reflects that the Veteran has a current bilateral hearing loss disability for VA compensation purposes.  That examiner also noted that the Veteran had a high probability of noise exposure in the military as a Hull maintenance technician.  Service personnel records confirm that the Veteran served as a Hull technician in service.  Finally, while the examiner concluded that it was at least as likely as not that the majority of the Veteran’s hearing loss was caused by 30 years of work in construction, “it cannot be ruled out that some of his hearing loss is at least as likely as not caused by noise exposure in the military as a Hull maintenance technician.”
The Board notes that the nexus element of service connection requires only a causal relationship, not a sole causal relationship (in isolation). The Board finds that the evidence is at least in equipoise with regard to the question of whether the Veteran's hearing loss is related to his military service; therefore, service connection for such disability is warranted. 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102.
 

 
M. C. GRAHAM
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	C. Lawson, Counsel