BVA Case 99-179: Psychiatric

Brown , appeals a January 20, 1999, decision of the Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA or Board) that (1) determined that new and material evidence had not been submitted to reopen a previously denied claim for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) service connection for an eye disorder, and (2) denied entitlement to a rating above 50% for service-connected neurodermatitis disseminata.

In May 1975, the Board denied service connection for defective vision .

In the January 1999 BVA decision here on appeal, the Board denied entitlement to a rating above 50% for the veteran's service-connected neurodermatitis disseminata and determined that new and material evidence had not been presented to reopen his previously disallowed claim for service connection for an eye disorder.

Eye-Related Claims The Secretary must reopen a previously and finally disallowed claim when new and material evidence is presented or secured.

The first step involves a determination as to whether the evidence presented or secured since the last final disallowance of the claim is new and material.

156(a)) specific criteria with which to determine whether evidence is new and material.

156(a) provides that new and material evidence is evidence not previously submitted to agency decisionmakers which bears directly and substantially upon the specific matter under consideration, which is neither cumulative nor redundant, and which .

If the Secretary determines that the evidence is new and material, he must then reopen the disallowed claim and determine whether the appellant's claim, as then reopened, is well grounded in terms of all the evidence in support of the claim, generally presuming the credibility of that evidence .