Citation Nr: 20021774
Decision Date: 03/27/20	Archive Date: 03/27/20

DOCKET NO. 05-23 257
DATE: March 27, 2020

REMANDED

Entitlement to an initial rating higher than 60 percent for Meniere’s disease with peripheral vestibular disorder is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran had honorable active duty service from January 1973 to January 1977 and from August 1982 to August 1985.

This matter comes to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a rating decision issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in January 2004, which granted service connection for eustachian tube dysfunction and assigned an initial 30 percent rating. The Veteran appealed to the Board and the appeal was denied in May 2009. The Veteran appealed the Board’s May 2009 decision to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court). In February 2011, the Court entered a Memorandum Decision vacating and remanding the Board’s decision insofar as it denied a higher schedular rating for the Veteran’s service-connected eustachian tube dysfunction. The Court found that the Board had not provided adequate reasons and bases for its conclusion    that there was no objective evidence that the Veteran suffered from Meniere’s disease and for its determination that a higher rating was not warranted because   the Veteran did not have a cerebellar gait. The claim was remanded by the Board in May 2012 for development consistent with the Court’s remand. In a March 2015 rating decision, the RO granted service connection for Meniere’s disease and recharacterized the disability as Meniere’s disease with peripheral vestibular disorder. The claim was remanded by the Board in October 2017.

In November 2018, the Board granted an initial rating of 60 percent, but no higher, for Meniere’s disease with peripheral vestibular disorder. A May 2018 rating decision effectuated the grant of the 60 percent rating effective August 25, 2003, and recharacterized the disability as Meniere’s disease, peripheral vestibular disorder, bilateral otosclerosis, impaired hearing, post-operative stapedectomies, and tinnitus. The Veteran appealed to the Court. In a Joint Motion for Partial Remand, the parties requested that the Court vacate the November 2018 Board decision that denied entitlement to an initial rating higher than 60 percent for Meniere’s disease with peripheral vestibular disorder. In a November 2019     Order, the Court granted the Joint Motion.

Transcripts from hearings conducted in September 2008 before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge and in December 2013 before a Decision Review Officer are of record. 

The Board’s November 2018 decision also included a remand of several other claims, which remain in remand status. As such, the Board will not accept jurisdiction over them at this time and they will be the subject of a subsequent Board decision if otherwise in order.

1. An initial rating higher than 60 percent for Meniere’s disease with peripheral vestibular disorder is remanded.

Updated VA treatment records. In addition, as additional VA medical records have been associated with the claims file since the last adjudication, a supplemental statement of the case should be issued. 

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

1. Obtain VA treatment records dated since May 2019 and associate them with the claims file.

2. If the benefit sought on appeal remains denied, the appellant and his representative should be furnished a supplemental statement of the case and be given an appropriate period to respond thereto before the case       is returned to the Board, if in order. 

 

 

K. A. BANFIELD

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	D. Van Wambeke, Counsel

The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.