Opinion ID: 770829
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Neck Injury

Text: 26 Elkins argues here, as before the Veterans Court, that the DVA's duty to assist the veteran under 38 U.S.C. 5107(a) to develop the facts pertinent to the claim includes the duty to assist the veteran in articulating injuries that were not asserted as such by the veteran but are raised in the evidence. The evidence before the Board, Elkins asserts, included a medical report stating that Elkins was misinterpreting cervical or neck pain as headaches. Elkins argues that this evidence created an affirmative obligation on the part of the DVA and the Board to address the claim as including a neck or cervical injury. In support of his argument before the Veterans Court, Elkins pointed to the BVA's own decision quoting the examiner's statement that what he was interpreting as headaches was actually cervical or neck pain. 27 Ignoring these arguments, however, the Veterans Court dismissed the nascent claim as to neck or cervical injury by concluding that it had no jurisdiction. Citing Ledford, the court reasoned that it had jurisdiction only over decisions of the Board and because a neck or cervical injury was not articulated in the NOD, raised in the substantive appeal, or discussed in the Board decision, it was never decided and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the court. 28 A. Elkins argues that this court's decision in Maggitt, 202 F.3d at 1377, holding that the Veterans Court had jurisdiction to hear arguments presented to it in the first instance, provided it otherwise has jurisdiction over the veteran's claim, id. (emphasis added), is controlling. In Maggitt, the veteran made a claim before the RO for asthma, a knee condition, a skin disorder, and a back injury. The RO and the Board denied the claim as to all four. Before the Veterans Court, Maggitt asserted the same four injuries but made two additional constitutional and administrative arguments in support of service connection for those same four alleged disabilities. 29 Elkins seems to assert that had the DVA properly assisted him, it would have considered the headache claim as including neck or cervical injury because such an injury was obvious from the medical records. Thus, Elkins appears to argue he did not present a new claim for neck or cervical injury but, like the veteran in Maggitt, was merely making a new argument, namely that a neck or cervical injury was apparent in the evidence of record before the BVA, although he articulated it as headaches. 30 B. The government responds that Elkins never filed a claim or NOD for neck pain (only citing back pain and headaches), and thus the BVA properly never mentioned it. In Ledford, 136 F.3d at 780, we explained that a narrow or specific NOD may limit the Veterans Court's jurisdiction to the specific elements of the benefits request that were denied in a decision below and contested in the NOD. We also explained that an NOD is necessary for the Veterans Court to have jurisdiction over a claim. See id. at 781 (An NOD is required to initiate the appellate review process.). The government argues that the Veterans Court's jurisdiction is limited to claims expressly raised by the veteran before the agency and decided by the BVA. 31 C. As we indicated in Maggitt, 202 F.3d at 1374, the manner in which the Veterans Court defines its statutory jurisdiction is a legal matter for our plenary review. Whether the Veterans Court had jurisdiction will depend on whether Elkins sought to make a new claim for neck injury before the Veterans Court or if he made only an additional argument in support of his existing headache claim raised in the NOD. If the former, Ledford controls and jurisdiction was properly found lacking. If the latter, Maggitt controls. 32 Our examination of Elkins' briefs before the Veterans Court points to the latter. In those briefs, Elkins cites the medical report conclusion that his headache pain was actually attributable to a neck injury and argues: 33 The doctor acknowledges that the Appellant experiences pain which he interprets as headaches. The Appellant's substantive appeal mentioned headaches. [ ] It is disingenuous, at the very least, to argue that the Appellant is not competent to give an opinion as to the etiology of his condition, but then disallow his claim when he identifies the symptom that he is experiencing for the reason that he has failed to adequately diagnose it. 34 App. at 24 (emphasis added). Thus, Elkins appears to have argued to the Veterans Court that perhaps his headache claim is better characterized as a neck or cervical injury instead of by its apparent symptom of headaches. The DVA, Elkins argued before the Veterans Court, had a duty to assist him in properly developing his claim, rather than denying his claim because the injury was not properly described. We read this to be a new argument in support of Elkins' request for service connection for a disability that Elkins referred to in the NOD as headaches. Were the facts different we might agree with the government that Elkins made a new claim for the first time before the Veterans Court. For example, had Elkins argued before the Veterans Court that the evidence supported a finding of service connection for heart disease or a leg injury we would be hard pressed to view that as anything but a new claim, outside the jurisdiction of the Veterans Court. Here, however, the argument made by Elkins directly addressed the BVA's determination that he had not made a well grounded claim for headaches. 35 This case is thus more like Maggitt. Therefore, we reverse the Veterans Court's dismissal for lack of jurisdiction. The Veterans Court erred in dismissing Elkins' appeal because it was based on an argument that the BVA should have assisted him in properly developing the facts of his claim as focused on a new neck or cervical injury, rather than Elkins' headache condition. Despite dismissing what it called Elkins' neck injury claim, the court seems to have assimilated the argument into its finding that Elkins had indeed presented sufficient medical evidence that he currently suffered from an injury to satisfy the current disability element of the three-part Caluza test for well groundedness. See Caluza, 7 Vet. App. at 498. Thus, the Veterans Court appears to agree with Elkins that he indeed suffers a current injury. The question left unaddressed by the Veterans Court is whether the injury is properly denominated as headaches or a neck injury, or both, and whether nexus to a service event can be shown. 36 Because the parties agree that the headache condition is properly remanded to the Veterans Court for remand to the BVA, the failure of the Veterans Court to directly address the argument that Elkins' injury is better denominated as neck injury is moot. It is now established that Elkins suffers from some current injury or disability separate from his back injury. On remand the BVA shall determine, based on the medical evidence presented, how that injury is best characterized. It shall also either determine that the claim is still not well grounded for lack of proof of nexus, or reach the merits after the DVA has assisted the veteran in developing the facts pertinent to the claim. This court of course neither makes any determination, nor intimates any view, as to either issue.