Citation Nr: 18161049
Decision Date: 12/28/18	Archive Date: 12/28/18

DOCKET NO. 17-10 080
DATE:	December 28, 2018





ORDER

Entitlement to a total disability evaluation based on individual unemployability (TDIU) due to service-connected disabilities is denied.



FINDING OF FACT

The Veteran is not service-connected for any disabilities.



CONCLUSION OF LAW

The criteria for TDIU have not been met.  38 U.S.C. § 1155 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.159, 3.340, 3.341, 4.16 (2017).





REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION

The Veteran served on active duty from February 1973 to September 1974.

This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a February 2015 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in St. Petersburg, Florida.  



Law and Analysis

The Veteran has not raised any issues with the duty to notify or duty to assist.  See Scott v. McDonald, 789 F.3d 1375, 1381 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (holding that “the Board’s obligation to read filings in a liberal manner does not require the Board . . . to search the record and address procedural arguments when the veteran fails to raise them before the Board.”); Dickens v. McDonald, 814 F.3d 1359, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (applying Scott to a duty to assist argument). 

A total disability rating for compensation may be assigned, where the schedular rating is less than total, when a veteran is, in the judgment of the rating agency, unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation as a result of a single service-connected disability ratable at 60 percent or more, or as a result of two or more disabilities, provided at least one disability is ratable at 40 percent or more, and there is sufficient additional service-connected disability to bring the combined rating to 70 percent or more.  38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a).  Nevertheless, even when the percentage requirements are not met, entitlement to TDIU on an extraschedular basis may be granted in exceptional cases when the veteran is unable to secure and follow a substantially gainful occupation by reason of service-connected disabilities.  38 C.F.R. § 4.16(b).

After reviewing the evidence of record, the Board finds that the Veteran is not entitled to TDIU.  He is not service-connected for any disabilities; therefore, he does not meet the threshold requirement for TDIU.  Thus, as a matter of law, the claim must be denied.  38 U.S.C. § 1155; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.340, 3.341, 4.16, 4.19.

 

J.W. ZISSIMOS

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	J. Saikh, Associate Counsel