BVA Case 23-1455: Back

The Board denied entitlement to an effective date earlier than March 23,2015,for the award of a separate rating for right knee flexion in a February 2019 decision.

4 In the April 2022 decision on appeal,the Board denied ,for the period prior to March 23, 2015,entitlement to a higher rating for right knee instability, a separate rating for a right knee meniscus tear,a separate rating for right knee scars,and a separate 10%rating for right knee limitation of flexion.

As for the effective date for the separate rating for limited flexion,he alleges generally that the Board failed to ensure compliance with the Court's November 2020 remand because the Board only briefly referenced the remand order and relied on its prior inclination to deny an effective date earlier than March 2015.

The appellant next appears to argue that the Board erred in finding that any June 1980 claim that remained pending was finally adjudicated in the November and December 2010 RO decisions because there is no clear language in those decisions reflecting an adjudication of an increased rating claim.

In that regard, he argues that the 2010 RO decisions merely continued a prior rating,and because those decisions did not analyze whether new and material evidence had been submitted and did not reopen his prior claim,the RO understood at that time that the 1980 claim remained pending.

In addition,the appellant asserts that,in the decision on appeal,the Board favorably determined that all of the residuals of his right knee disability have existed since as early as 1980, and therefore the Board erred in finding that no effective date earlier than March 23, 2015,is warranted.

The Secretary also contends that the appellant did not seek service connection for limitation of motion of the right knee until March 23,2015,and [he]fails to show that the Board erred by denying entitlement to an earlier effective date.

He also maintains that the Board failed to comply with the Court's November 2020 remand, Reply Br.