June 2025 - July 2025 Case Law Updates

United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court)

Concepcion-Maldonado v. Collins, (22-7476)

Decided on June 23, 2025

The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Veterans Court) held that a VA grant in a modernized claim can’t moot a legacy claim for the same benefit when an earlier effective date is possible through the legacy appeal. The Veterans Court left open the possibility that, in some cases, the Board may consider a pending appeal after an AOJ grant and conclude that there’s no longer a controversy, as was the case in Henderson v. West where both the claim on appeal and the claim granted by the AOJ were in the legacy system. However, the Veterans Court reiterated that an appeal is not moot where the claimant can only receive full relief by continuing to pursue the claimant’s pending appeal—a nuanced inquiry that requires analyzing the details of the case. Here, the Veterans Court determined Mr. Concepcion-Maldonado’s legacy claim for service connection for a neck disability presented a live controversy and remanded the claim to the Board for readjudication. Although Appellant was granted service connection for his neck disability under the AMA in July 2023 with an effective date of January 25, 2023, Appellant’s claim under the legacy system was submitted on July 12, 2016. Therefore, the Veterans Court found that it could provide additional relief here: the opportunity for Appellant to seek an earlier effective date that aligns with his original claim in the legacy stream

Adams v. Collins, (23-5064)

Decided on July 8, 2025

The Veterans Court rejected the G.C. opinion’s interpretation that obesity is per se not a disability for purposes of 38 U.S.C. § 1110 because the opinion’s reasoning that obesity does not impair earning capacity of most obese individuals contradicts its finding that obesity can physically and socially impair some people and thus does not comport with Saunders’s definition of disability. The G.C. opinion’s interpretation that obesity is not considered a “disease” that can satisfy the in-service event requirement for direct service connection under section 1110 was held to be persuasive, as it was supported by references to medical literature and the Secretary’s exercise of gap-filling authority here was permissible. However, the Veterans Court, relying on Allen v. Brown and Spicer v. McDonough, did not defer to the G.C. opinion’s interpretation of 38 C.F.R. § 3.310 because in the context of secondary service connection under § 3.310(a), a “disease” refers to a condition that has already been service-connected, so whether obesity itself is a disease or injury for purposes of section 1110 is irrelevant. In Mr. Adams’s case, the Court remanded Mr. Adams’s claim for service connection for obesity as secondary to PTSD and dismissed the remainder of the appeal.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit or Fed. Cir.)

Deal v. Collins, (21-6401)

Decided on June 27, 2025

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) held that the VA’s delay in addressing whether evidence submitted during the appeal period of a prior claim is new and material under 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(b) does not automatically entitle the claimant to the benefit of an earlier date of application for purposes of determining an effective date. The Federal Circuit reiterated that if VA has not yet provided a responsive determination on whether a record submitted within the relevant period is new and material under § 3.156(b), the proper course of action is for the claim to be remanded for the VA to make such a determination. The Court clarified that under Bond v. Shinseki and Beraud v. McDonald, the claim waiting such a responsive determination remains “open” for the limited purpose of requiring VA to make the responsive determination; only if VA finds the evidence to be new and material is the evidence treated as having been filed in connection with the prior claim.