Citation Nr: 20043987 Decision Date: 06/30/20 Archive Date: 06/30/20 DOCKET NO. 12-15 428 DATE: June 30, 2020 ORDER Entitlement to a total disability rating due to individual unemployability (TDIU) based on the service-connected flexor tendonitis of the right wrist is denied. FINDING OF FACT The evidence of record does not show that the service-connected flexor tendonitis of the Veteran’s right wrist condition has prevented her from obtaining or maintaining a substantially gainful employment during the appeal period. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for entitlement to a TDIU based on the service-connected flexor tendonitis of the Veteran’s right wrist have not been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 501, 1155, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 4.15, 4.16. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran had active service from 1996 to 2000. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from an August 2010 rating decision. This matter was previously before the Board in December 2013 and November 2017. Most recently, in November 2017, the Board found that the issue of entitlement to a TDIU based on the service-connected flexor tendonitis of the right wrist had been raised by the record. Rice v. Shinseki, 22 Vet. App. 447, 453 (2009). TDIU based on the service-connected flexor tendonitis of the right wrist VA regulations provide that total disability will be considered to exist when there is present any impairment of mind or body which is sufficient to permanently render it impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation. 38 C.F.R. § 4.15. A total disability rating may be assigned where the schedular rating is less than total when the disabled claimant is unable to secure or maintain substantially gainful employment by reason of one or more service-connected disabilities. 38 U.S.C. § 501; 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a). Where entitlement is based on a single service-connected disability, the disability must be rated 60 percent or higher. In order for claimants who have two or more service-connected disabilities to qualify for a total disability rating, one of the disabilities must be rated 40 percent or greater, and the combined disability rating of all the claimant’s disabilities must be 70 percent or greater. Id. By itself, the fact that a veteran is unemployed or has difficulty obtaining employment is not enough to establish entitlement to a TDIU. Van Hoose v. Brown, 4 Vet. App. 361, 363 (1993). Similarly, a high disability rating is also insufficient to establish entitlement to TDIU; a high disability rating represents an acknowledgment of that a veteran’s service-connected disabilities make it difficult to obtain or maintain employment. Id. “The question is whether the veteran is capable of performing the physical and mental acts required by employment.” Id. In this case, entitlement to TDIU based on all of the Veteran’s combined disabilities was denied in a June 2013 rating decision and not appealed. The subsequent December 2013 Board remand found that the Veteran’s right wrist had neurological manifestations and remanded for clarification of those manifestations. Those remand directives resulted in a separate grant of service connection for carpal tunnel syndrome, which the Veteran also did not appeal. The November 2017 Board decision resolved a longstanding claim for an increased rating for right wrist flexor tendonitis but remanded a claim for a TDIU based on this right wrist condition to comply with the duty to notify and assist and any other development that may have been required. Consequently, the question before the Board is whether the Veteran’s right wrist flexor tendonitis has rendered her incapable of obtaining or maintaining substantially gainful employment. The Veteran has alleged that her wrist condition was partially responsible for disabling her since her August 2010 application for TDIU. She has also included this condition as part of what she has alleged has rendered her disabled in correspondence with the Social Security Administration (SSA). VA examinations beginning in August 2010 have documented that this condition has affected her in her job. That VA examination documented that her wrists (plural) caused her problems at work because it limited her ability to lift weight greater than 5 pounds, but also documented that the Veteran remained employed. However, the record is not consistent with a finding that her right wrist flexor tendonitis alone meets the criteria for a TDIU. First, this condition is only rated 10 percent disabling and thus does not meet the schedular criteria for TDIU. 38 U.S.C. § 501; 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a). Second, the overall record is simply not consistent with a finding that her right wrist condition alone has rendered her unemployable. In the Veteran’s August 2010 claim, she alleged that she was unemployable due to her wrists and her knees. A follow up statement in September 2010 made a similar claim. An August 2011 VA examination documented that the Veteran had last worked in September 2010 but had had to stop due to problems with her knees and her wrists. A December 2011 VA examination found that the Veteran’s wrist conditions were not medically disabling her but that she was not looking to be in the work environment because she was currently a stay at home mom and attending school. A June 2015 VA examination documented that she was having difficulty typing at work (a new job that she was then employed in), and a similar notation was made in a February 2016 VA examination. The record is filled with information similar to this throughout the appeal period. The Veteran’s right wrist condition is frequently found to cause her difficulties at work, but it was listed as one factor out of several others that the Veteran alleges or alleged make her unemployable and not alone sufficient to render her unemployable. Moreover, the record documents that the Veteran was generally employable during the appeal period. For the vast majority of the appeal period, she was either employed in one capacity or another in various jobs, or she was in a bachelor’s degree program. Consequently, the overall record is simply inconsistent with a finding that the Veteran was incapable of obtaining or maintaining a substantially gainful course of employment due to her service-connected right wrist flexor tendonitis. The record here documents that the Veteran was working as recently as July 2019, and her recent statements regarding her work in both a March 2019 VA treatment record and a June 2019 statement for her TDIU claim obtained after this matter was remanded by the Board to get more information from her on her employability due to her right wrist condition focuses entirely on her psychiatric symptoms and their effect on her employment. Accordingly, based on this record, the Board finds that entitlement to a TDIU due to the Veteran’s service-connected right wrist flexor tendonitis is not supported by the record. This claim must, therefore, be denied. THERESA M. CATINO Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board Steven Johnston, Associate 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.