Citation Nr: 18160985
Decision Date: 12/28/18	Archive Date: 12/28/18

DOCKET NO. 16-63 198
DATE:	December 28, 2018

ORDER

Entitlement to service connection for hypertension is dismissed as moot.

FINDING OF FACT

A June 2018 rating decision granted service connection for hypertension.

CONCLUSION OF LAW

The Board lacks jurisdiction over the claim for service connection for hypertension because the claim has been granted and rendered moot. 38 U.S.C. § 7105; 38 C.F.R. § 20.202.

REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION

The Veteran served on active duty from June 1973 to August 1995.

This case comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal of a March 2013 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in St. Petersburg, Florida which, inter alia, reopened and denied the Veteran’s claim for service connection for hypertension.

In May 2013 the Veteran filed his notice of disagreement, was issued a statement of the case in November 2016, and in December 2016 perfected his appeal to the Board.

The appeal was certified to the Board in January 2017.  However, prior to the Board’s decision in this case, the RO in a June 2018 rating decision granted service connection for hypertension.

Entitlement to service connection for hypertension

In this case, the claim for service connection for hypertension was granted and evaluated as 10 percent disabling effective April 18, 2018 in a rating decision issued by the RO in June 2018.  As a general matter, the grant of a claim of service connection constitutes an award of full benefits sought on an appeal of the denial of a service connection claim. See Seri v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 441, 447 (2007); see also Grantham v. Brown, 114 F.3d 1156 (Fed. Cir. 1997) (where an appealed claim for service connection is granted during the pendency of the appeal, a second Notice of Disagreement must thereafter be timely filed to initiate appellate review of “downstream” issues such as the compensation level assigned for the disability or the effective date of service connection). 

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The Board may dismiss any appeal which fails to allege specific error of fact or law in the determination being appealed. 38 U.S.C. § 7105(d)(5); 38 C.F.R. § 20.202. Here, as a result of the RO’s actions, there can be no error of law with respect to the claim for service connection for hypertension, as a claim for the same benefit has been granted.  Therefore, the Board lacks jurisdiction over this issue because it has been granted and rendered moot on appeal.

 

Jonathan Hager

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	R. Maddox, Associate Counsel