N OTE : This disposition is nonprecedential. 

# United States Court of Appeals **for the Federal Circuit**

__________________________ VERNON ELLIOTT, JR., Claimant-Appellant,

v. ERIC K. SHINSEKI, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, Respondent-Appellee.

__________________________
2010-7105

__________________________ Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in case no. 08-2083, Judge Lawrence B. Hagel.

_________________________ Decided: February 16, 2011

_________________________
V IRGINIA A. G IRARD -B RADY , ABS Legal Advocates, P.A., Lawrence Kansas, argued for claimant-appellant.

T ARA K. H OGAN , Trial Attorney, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, Un ited States Department of Justice, argued for respondent-appellee. With her on the brief were T ONY W EST , Assistant Attorney General, J EANNE E. D AVIDSON , Director, M ARTIN F. H OCKEY , J R .,ELLIOTT v. DVA 2

Assistant Director. Of counsel on the brief were D AVID J. B ARRANS , Deputy Assistant General Counsel, and R ACHAEL T. S HENKMAN , Attorney, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, of Washington, DC. Of counsel was K RISTIANA M. B RUGGER , Attorney, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, of Washington, DC.

__________________________
Before G AJARSA , L INN , and M OORE , Circuit Judges

. G AJARSA , Circuit Judge

. Vernon Elliott, Jr., seeks re view of a judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (“Veterans Court”) holding that a Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) medical opinion he received in 2007 was adequate. See Elliott v. Shinseki , No. 08-2083 (Vet. App. Mar. 1, 2010). Because his ch allenge is outside the scope of our jurisdiction, we dismiss

. Our authority to review a decision of the Veterans Court is limited by statute. See 38 U.S.C. § 7292. Under section 7292(a), we may review such a decision only to the extent that it pertains to “the validity of any statute or regulation . . . or any interpre tation thereof (other than a determination as to a factual matter),” or “to interpret constitutional and statutory provisions, to the extent presented and necessary to a decision.” Id. §§ 7292(a), 7292(c). Absent a constitutional issue, we do not have jurisdiction to review either “a challenge to a factual determination” or “a challenge to a law or regulation as applied to the facts of a particular case.” Id. § 7292(d)(2);

see McGee v. Peake , 511 F.3d 1352, 1355 (Fed. Cir. 2008). Because Elliot’s appeal only questions the application of established law to the facts of his case, it falls outside the scope of our appellate authority.ELLIOTT v. DVA 3

Mr. Elliott’s arguments are very similar to those presented by his counsel in a case this court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, De Ramos v. Eric K. Shinseki , 358 Fed. Appx. 167 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (non-precedential). The appellant in De Ramos , like Mr. Elliott, attempted to frame the issue as the Veterans Court’s interpretation of 38 C.F.R. § 3.326 to allow VA reliance on an inadequate medical examination resulting in medical conclusions by a rating specialist. In this case, the Veterans Court did not purport to interpret 38 C.F.R. § 3.326. What Mr. Elliott characterizes as an interpreta tion of law is actually an unreviewable finding of fact. See Cole v. Shinseki , 309 Fed. Appx. 399, 2009 WL 260776, *2 (Fed. Cir. 2009)(non-precedential) (holding that this court lacked jurisdiction over a challenge to adequacy of medical examiner’sopinion because it is a challenge to a factual determination of the Veterans Court or, at most, the application of law to facts). Accordingly, we dismiss Elliot’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

DISMISSED

No costs.