Opinion ID: 783800
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Absence of Exception to Time Limitation

Text: 42 Petitioners DAV and NOVA make a further argument with respect to the one-year statutory time frame in 38 U.S.C. § 5103(b)(1). According to DAV, the regulation is contrary to the statute, and arbitrary and capricious, because it fails to establish exceptions to the general rule that evidence must be received within one year. Petitioners principally rely on the pre-VCAA statute and other regulatory provisions, which permitted an exception to or waiver of the statutory time limitations under certain circumstances. VA has therefore erred, according to Petitioners, by promulgating a regulation where a new regulation is not required. Further, they argue that such an exception is necessary to accommodate claimants who are seriously disabled or have other significant hardships. 43 The government responds, and we agree, that VA's failure to provide certain exceptions to the one-year regulation is not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or contrary to law. Rather, the statute clearly and unambiguously provides that failure to submit the requested information or evidence within the one-year period precludes the award of benefits payable by reason of the claimant's application. 38 U.S.C. § 5103(b)(1). Just as the statute clearly compels our prior rejection of VA's conditional curtailment of the one-year statutory time frame, so too does it preclude its expansion.