BVA Case 95-673: Knee

FARLEY, Judge: This is an appeal from an April 4, 1995, decision of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA or Board) which determined that new and material evidence had not been submitted to reopen the appellant’s claim for service connection for psoriasis.

The appellant sought to reopen his claim in May 1988, and was advised to submit new and material evidence related to the issue of aggravation in service.

The Board found that the “[e]vidence received since the January 1979 unappealed rating decision is not new and material to reopen the [appellant’s] claim [for] service connection for psoriasis.

The Secretary shall reopen a previously disallowed claim upon the presentation by the claimant of new and material evidence.

The issue of whether evidence is new and material is a conclusion of law which the Court reviews de novo.

The Secretary must perform a two-step analysis when a veteran seeks to reopen a final decision based on new and material evidence.

First, it must determine whether the evidence presented or secured since the last final disallowance is “new and material.

273, 283 (1996), this Court stated that step one of the Manio two-step process, the determination of whether the evidence is new and material, involves three questions.