Opinion ID: 862
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Disability Rating

Text: Next, Barnick asserts that the award of 10% disability retroactive to 1998 was insufficient, and that he should have been awarded a higher disability rating. The Court of Federal Claims concluded that the AFBCMR's decisions setting Barnick's disability rate were not arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence, or contrary to law. Barnick, 80 Fed.Cl. at 558-60. Barnick contends that procedural flaws in conducting his medical reviews resulted in an erroneously low disability rate. We reject these procedural challenges. Barnick's primary challenge to the Air Force's medical evaluations is that they were all conducted to assess his physical condition on January 25, 1998, rather than his current condition at the time of the evaluations. In light of Barnick's proper discharge on January 25, 1998, however, this contention is without merit. Under 10 U.S.C. § 1203, the statutory provision under which Barnick was discharged, the extent of a service member's disability is to be determined at the time that he is found unfit for duty and separated from the service. See 10 U.S.C. § 1203(a), (b)(4); see also Unterberg v. United States, 188 Ct.Cl. 994, 412 F.2d 1341, 1346 (1969) ([T]he fact that a plaintiff's condition may have deteriorated subsequent to his release from service is not of itself determinative of the issue as to his fitness at the time of his release.). Thus, Barnick's discharge date and the date upon which his disability rating is based are inextricably tied. Barnick offers no authority for separating the two, and he was properly evaluated as of January 25, 1998. Barnick further argues that various procedural flaws by the MEB contributed to an erroneous disability rating. He alleges that the Air Force violated its own regulations by having only one doctor on the MEB rather than three. However, the Air Force properly followed its regulations: one doctor prepared the MEB Narrative Summary, a document briefly describing Barnick's medical condition, see Air Force Instruction 44-157, ¶ 3.6.1-.2, and three doctors reviewed Barnick's medical record and signed the MEB report. In addition, Barnick argues that the MEB failed to make a required recommendation and medical prognosis. This is also unsupported by the evidence. The regulation to which Barnick refers, Air Force Instruction 44-157, ¶ 3.6.1, describes the Narrative Summary, not the MEB, and specifies that there is to be a section for Final Diagnosis/Recommendation, which in Barnick's case did present a final diagnosis of back pain. The doctor who completed the Narrative Summary noted that due to the complex administrative and legal issues in the case I will make no recommendations. J.A. 86. However, this is appropriate, as the regulations require that [t]he preparing physician will refrain from making comment ... concerning fitness for duty or expected disability process outcome. Air Force Instruction 44-157, ¶ 3.6.2. Therefore, the Court of Federal Claims did not err in finding that the AFBCMR did not act arbitrarily, capriciously, or contrary to law in directing that Barnick's condition be evaluated as of January 25, 1998, and adopting the dual recommendations of the PEB and the 2006 medical report that Barnick's disability rating be set at 10%. Barnick also asserts that it was error for the Court of Federal Claims to refuse to consider new evidence not previously before the Board as to the extent of his disability. At the trial court, Barnick presented for the first time a letter from a physician, Dr. Janerich, opining on the level of Barnick's disability and suggesting a (considerably) higher disability rating. The court refused to consider this letter, however, because it had not been before the Board and was not part of the administrative record. Barnick, 80 Fed.Cl. at 560. This court reviews evidentiary rulings under an abuse of discretion standard. Yankee Atomic Elec. Co. v. United States, 536 F.3d 1268, 1272 (Fed.Cir.2008). Recently in Walls v. United States, 582 F.3d 1358 (Fed.Cir.2009), we held that where evidence could have been submitted to a corrections board and was not, the evidence is properly excluded by the Court of Federal Claims. Id. at 1368. Here, Barnick has offered no showing of why he did not provide the AFBCMR with his medical evidence. Barnick had already visited Dr. Janerich on multiple occasions to assess his disability prior to his response to the 2006 medical report and prior to the Board's final decision. Because Barnick did not present his evidence to the Board, he was precluded from presenting it for the first time at the Court of Federal Claims.