United States Federal Circuit

The denial of claimant's application for educational assistance benefits by the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims is vacated and remanded, where: 1) the Veterans Court concluded that claimant was ineligible for benefits because the basis for his honorable discharge constituted willful misconduct as a matter of law; 2) the officially declared reason for claimant's discharge was "alcohol rehabilitation failure"; 3) "alcohol rehabilitation failure" cannot be said always to constitute or result from willful misconduct, regardless of circumstances, and neither the Board of Veterans' Appeals nor the Veterans Court made any determination of what particular conduct by claimant constituted misconduct, engaged in with the state of mind required for willfulness, that led to the rehabilitation-failure determination; and 4) in the absence of such findings, the denial of benefits cannot be upheld without reliance on an incorrect rule of law that alcohol rehabilitation failure always results from willful misconduct.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/05/2014
• Published 08/05/2014

Judges

• TARANTO

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel