Citation Nr: 19124802 Decision Date: 04/03/19 Archive Date: 04/02/19 DOCKET NO. 14-31 967A DATE: April 3, 2019 REMANDED The claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served on active duty from October 1959 to October 1963 and from December 1964 to December 1967. He died in April 2001. The appellant is his surviving spouse. Claim for service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death The record reflects that the Veteran was not service connected for any disability during his lifetime. The appellant has claimed that service connection is warranted for the cause of the Veteran’s death based on the Veteran’s exposure to herbicide agents (e.g., Agent Orange) while serving in Vietnam. While the Veteran is presumed to have been exposed to herbicide agents based on service in Vietnam during the Vietnam Era, the record within the claims file does not support that the Veteran died due to a disease for which presumptive service connection has been established based on exposure to herbicide agents. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307(a)(6), 3.309 (e) (2018). In April 2018, the Board remanded the case to obtain a legible copy of the Veteran’s death certificate, followed by a medical opinion. The two copies of the death certificate previously received and added to the record are both illegible for contributory causes of death (the forms are insufficiently clear to be able to tell whether there were contributory causes of death). On the copy received in August 2013 one can just make out the primary cause as metastatic squamous cell cancer (unknown primary). The VA Regional Office (RO) sent requests in July 2018 and October 2018 to the appellant for a legible copy of the death certificate, or an autopsy report, or terminal hospital record. No reply was received. The RO then obtained a medical opinion in January 2019 based on review of the record within the claims file. This opinion did not support the claim. A legible copy of the death certificate or a terminal hospitalization report could still potentially support the claim. Remand is warranted for Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ) efforts to obtain a copy of the death certificate from county or state records. By failing to seek the death certificate from official sources, substantial compliance with the Board’s remand directives was not achieved. Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998); D’Aries v. Peake, 22 Vet. App. 97 (2008). The appellant’s assistance should again be sought to obtain any terminal hospitalization records. The matter is REMANDED for the following actions: 1. Request a legible copy of the Veteran’s death certificate from Horry County, South Carolina, and/or from the South Carolina Department of Vital Records (DHEC Vital Records). These efforts should proceed until a legible copy is obtained or until the AOJ concludes that further efforts to obtain a legible copy would be futile. All records and responses received should be documented in the claims file. 2. Then request that the appellant submit information and an authorization to release records of the Veteran’s terminal hospitalization as well as any other records of treatment from January 2000 until the Veteran’s death in April 2001. She should also be asked to submit legible copies of any of these records she has in her possession, as well as a legible copy of the Veteran’s death certificate. All records and responses received should be documented in the claims file. 3. Undertake any other development that is warranted. 4. Readjudicate the issue on appeal. If the benefit sought is not granted to the appellant’s satisfaction, she and her representative should be provided a supplemental statement of the case and afforded the requisite opportunity to respond before (Continued next page)   the case is returned to the Board for further appellate action. L. CHU Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD D. Schechter