Citation Nr: 20056764 Decision Date: 08/27/20 Archive Date: 08/27/20 DOCKET NO. 15-43 218 DATE: August 27, 2020 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, including other specified trauma and stressor related disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is dismissed. FINDING OF FACT A recent May 2020 rating decision during the pendency of this appeal granted service connection for other specified trauma and stressor related disorder (also noted as primary insomnia) and, as a result, there is no longer a case or issue in controversy. CONCLUSION OF LAW As there is no case or controversy within the Board's jurisdiction, the Veteran's appeal concerning entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, including other specified trauma or stressor related disorder and PTSD, is dismissed. 38 U.S.C. § 7105(d)(5). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from October 1961 to January 1966. This appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) is from a May 2014 rating decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). The Veteran testified in support of this claim during a hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) of the Board in April 2019. A transcript of the hearing is of record. In May 2019, the Board remanded this claim for further development – including especially to obtain all outstanding treatment records and to have the Veteran reexamined to clarify the diagnosis or determine the most appropriate diagnosis and then for an opinion concerning the origins of any acquired psychiatric disorder determined to exist, particularly in terms of whether related or attributable to his military service. Those remand instructions since have been completed as directed. See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 271 (1998) (holding that a remand by the Board confers upon the Veteran, as a matter of law, the right to compliance with the remand instructions); but see also D'Aries v. Peake, 22 Vet. App. 97, 105 (2008) (holding that only “substantial” rather than strict or exact compliance with the Board's remand directives is required under Stegall); accord Dyment v. West, 13 Vet. App. 141, 146-47 (1999). The local regional office (RO) since has issued a decision in May 2020, on remand, granting service connection for other specified trauma and stressor related disorder (also noted a primary insomnia) and assigning an initial 30 percent rating for this now service-connected disability retroactively effective from December 24, 2013, so back to the date of receipt of this claim. If the Veteran disagrees with this initial rating and/or effective date, he must separately appeal these “downstream” issues. See Grantham v. Brown, 114 F.3d 1156, 1158-59 (Fed. Cir. 1997). Unless and until he does, there is no additional issue needing to be addressed since the benefit he initially requested (service connection) has been granted during the pendency of his appeal of this claim. Moreover, as a result, the Board is summarily dismissing this claim since there is no remaining case or controversy concerning this claim. Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, including other specified trauma and stressor related disorder and PTSD As already alluded to, as a result of the May 2019 Board remand, the Veteran underwent an additional VA examination in August 2019. During this examination, the examiner determined that, while the Veteran does not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD, he does have a diagnosis of other specified trauma and stressor related disorder that is from his Vietnam experiences. Resultantly, the Veteran was granted service connection for “other specified trauma and stressor related disorder (also noted as primary insomnia)” in the May 2020 RO rating decision, on remand. On the same date as that May 2020 rating decision granting this entitlement to service connection for “other specified trauma and stressor related disorder (also noted as primary insomnia)”, the RO also issued a Supplemental Statement of the Case (SSOC) conversely continuing to deny entitlement to service connection for PTSD, specifically, and, thus, the appeal was re-certified to the Board. However, the Veteran’s representative since has submitted a brief in July 2020 specifically requesting a grant of “service connection for other specified trauma and stressor related disorder with an effective date of August 5, 2019.” It is unclear why the representative requested entitlement to service connection for this disability, as it already had been granted in the May 2020 rating decision, on remand, and even more so with an earlier effective date of December 24, 2013, so back to the date of receipt of this claim, i.e., a date much more beneficial to the Veteran. As a function of the Board's de novo review authority, when previously remanding the claim for PTSD, the Board broadened the scope of the claim to more generally include an acquired psychiatric disorder, inclusive of the other specified trauma and stressor related disorder that since has been granted. See Clemons v. Shinseki, 23 Vet. App. 1, 6 (2009). So, as it stands, there is no remaining case or controversy concerning this claim. Accordingly, the Board is summarily dismissing the appeal of this claim. KEITH W. ALLEN Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board K. Pak 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.