IT’S THE LAW - September 2006
Thursday, September 14th, 2006IT’S THE LAW
by Richard Cohen, Esq.
©2006 Richard Cohen
Cohen, Abate & Cohen, L.C.
Attorneys at Law
P.O. Box 846
Morgantown, WV 26507-0846
(304)-292-1911
wvajustice@netscape.net
wvajustice.com
September 2006
Urgent information regarding NAVY VETERANS OF VIETNAM
If you served in the Navy off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam war, received the Vietnam Service Medal, and if you have developed cancer which is linked to Agent Orange exposure, or diabetes you need to file for benefits immediately or, if you have previously filed, request a reopening. In the Haas case, decided August 16, 2006, the Veterans Court decided that Navy vets, the so called “blue water” vets are entitled to the same presumption of exposure to herbicides under 38 CFR § 3.307(a)(6)(iii) which applies to those who set foot in Vietnam.
SOME IMPORTANT NEW CASES
In Hartness the Veterans Court decided that the VA was wrong in denying a special monthly pension to a veteran who was over 65 years of age and housebound. The VA insisted that the veteran must prove he has at least one disability rated at 100% disabling. The Court disagreed stating that the veteran must be a wartime veteran who is 65 years old and who is rated 60% or is considered permanently housebound.
A widow whose husband in 1997 filed his claim for cancer resulting from cigarette smoking in service (which was before the law was changed in 1998 prohibiting those claims) was found by the Veterans Court to be entitled to continue her claim for accrued benefits eventhough tobacco related claims are now prohibited, see Sheets, decided August 16, 2006
On August 24, 2006, in the case of Tropf the Veterans Court decided that it is improper for the VA to use a hyphenated rating code (7804-5320) to combine the ratings for his scar and muscle injury, because those two different disabling conditions must be rated separately. The Court noted that the clear purpose of a hypenated rating is to add information to help describe the origins of a single disability when the disability is not one listed under the explicit DC for the given condition.