United States Federal Circuit

Judgment affirming Board of Veterans' Appeals denial of petitioner's disability compensation claim for bilateral hearing loss is affirmed, where: 1) 38 CFR section 3.303(b) is constrained by section 3.309(a), regardless of the point in time when a veteran's chronic disease is either shown or noted, in that the regulation is only available to establish service connection for the specific chronic diseases listed in section 3.309(a); 2) diseases that would be considered "chronic" in a medical sense, but which are not listed in section 3.309(a), may qualify for service connection under the three-element test under section 3.303(a), and must satisfy the nexus requirement; and 3) because petitioner seeks compensation for a condition that is not listed as a chronic disease in section 3.309(a), his claim cannot be processed under section 3.303(b).

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/21/2013
• Published 02/21/2013

Judges

• CLEVENGER

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel