Citation Nr: 21031038 Decision Date: 05/20/21 Archive Date: 05/20/21 DOCKET NO. 14-38 151 DATE: May 20, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for the Veteran's cause of death is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran's principal cause of death, bladder cancer, is presumptively related to his in-service exposure to herbicide agents. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for entitlement to service connection for the Veteran's cause of death have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1116, 1131, 1310, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309, 3.312. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from September 1966 to September 1968. He died in March 2010 and the Appellant is his surviving spouse. This matter comes before Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from March 2011, January 2013, and February 2013 rating decisions issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). The Board most recently remanded this matter in August 2018 for further development, including additional treatment records, Social Security Administration records, and a medical opinion. Because this decision constitutes a full grant of the claim on appeal, further remand is unnecessary. The Appellant seeks service connection for the Veteran's cause of death. The Veteran's March 2010 death certificate lists bladder cancer as his immediate cause of death, with no underlying cause(s) of death listed. He was service-connected for only bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus at his time of death. The Appellant contends that the Veteran's bladder cancer was caused by in-service exposure to herbicide agents. Service connection may be granted for a disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated during service. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Service connection may also be granted for a disability diagnosed after discharge, when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disability is due to disease or injury that was incurred or aggravated in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d). Veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam era, beginning January 9, 1962 and ending May 7, 1975, are presumed to have been exposed during to an herbicide agent, unless there is affirmative evidence to the contrary. 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iii). For those veterans presumed to have been exposed to herbicides, certain enumerated diseases are deemed service connected even though there is no record of such disease during service, so long as the requirements of 38 U.S.C. § 1116 and 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iii) are met, and the rebuttable presumption provisions of 38 U.S.C. § 1113 and 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(d) are also satisfied. 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e). Per a January 2021 amendment to 38 U.S.C. § 1116(b)(2), bladder cancer is now an enumerated disease presumptively associated with exposure to herbicide agents. See National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Pub. L. 116-283 (January 1, 2021). VA death benefits are payable to the surviving spouse of a veteran if the veteran died from a service-connected disability. 38 U.S.C. § 1310; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.5, 3.312. To establish service connection for the cause of a veteran's death, the evidence must show that a disability incurred in or aggravated by active service was the principal or contributory cause of death. 38 C.F.R. § 3.312. The Veteran's military personnel records establish that he had service in the Republic of Vietnam, and the Board previously recognized the Veteran's presumed exposure to herbicide agents in the August 2018 remand. The March 2010 death certificate establishes the Veteran's immediate and principal cause of death as bladder cancer. Because the Veteran's principal cause of death is bladder cancer is now an enumerated disease presumptively associated with exposure to herbicide agents, service connection is warranted unless there is evidence rebutting the presumption of service connection. The VA examiner in 2019 discussed various causes of bladder cancer, but not expressly opine as to the cause of this Veteran's cancer, and, part of the underlying rationale was that bladder cancer was not presumptively associated with herbicide exposure, but that has not changed. Accordingly, the Board finds that the Veteran's cause of death is service-connected, and the Appellant's claim is granted. MICHELLE L. KANE Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board A. Tierno 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.