Citation Nr: 18160103
Decision Date: 12/21/18	Archive Date: 12/21/18

DOCKET NO. 12-35 473
DATE:	December 21, 2018

ORDER
The appeal is dismissed.  
FINDING OF FACT
The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Army from January 1958 to July 1958, with additional reserve service; in August 2018, VA was notified that the Veteran had died earlier that month.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
Due to the Veteran’s death, the Board has no jurisdiction to adjudicate the merits of this appeal.  38 U.S.C. §§ 5121A, 7104(a); 38 C.F.R. § 20.1302.
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSIONS
These matters were remanded by the Board in October 2017 for additional development, which has since been completed.  See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 271 (1998).
However, VA was notified in August 2018 that the Veteran had died earlier that month.  This was corroborated by a Social Security Administration (SSA) inquiry conducted in December 2018.  
As a matter of law, claims do not survive the death of the claimant.  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).  As such, this appeal has become moot by virtue of the death of the claimant and is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.  See 38 U.S.C. § 7104(a); 38 C.F.R. § 20.1302.  
Thus, the appeals seeking service connection for sleep, back, neck, left and right foot, left and right hip, and left and right leg disorders are hereby dismissed.  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.
Specifically, 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 claims to completion.  Such request must be filed not later than one year after the date of the Veteran’s death.  38 U.S.C. § 5121A; 38 C.F.R. § 3.1010.  
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 RO from which the claim originated.  38 C.F.R. § 3.1010(b).  In this case, no eligible party has yet requested substitution. 




Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed.

	 
Evan M. Deichert
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	K. Kovarovic, Associate Counsel