Court Opinion

ID: 9377977
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-03-09 15:01:17.884488+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:17:18.361802
License: Public Domain

Case: 21-2341     Document: 34     Page: 1    Filed: 03/09/2023

            NOTE: This order is nonprecedential.

   United States Court of Appeals
       for the Federal Circuit
                   ______________________

                 CHARLES E. DESHNER,
                   Claimant-Appellant

                              v.

        DENIS MCDONOUGH, SECRETARY OF
               VETERANS AFFAIRS,
                Respondent-Appellee
               ______________________

                         2021-2341
                   ______________________

     Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for
 Veterans Claims in No. 20-2156, Judge Amanda L. Mere-
 dith.
                 ______________________

      Before DYK, REYNA, and STARK, Circuit Judges.

 PER CURIAM.
                          ORDER
     Appellant appeals the determination by the United
 States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (“Veterans
 Court”) that he was not eligible for total disability individ-
 ual unemployability (“TDIU”) status before 2016 based on
 appellant’s theory that two of his disabilities were combin-
 able in 2015 because they resulted from a “common etiol-
 ogy.” 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a). The Veterans Court concluded
Case: 21-2341    Document: 34      Page: 2    Filed: 03/09/2023

 2                                    DESHNER   v. MCDONOUGH

 that this theory had not been raised before the Board of
 Veterans’ Appeals (“Board”). Because of the remand in this
 case to the Board, the Board has before it the question of
 when appellant became entitled to schedular TDIU as a re-
 sult of his 70% post-traumatic stress disorder disability.
 Appellant’s theories (1) in this appeal that his eligibility
 date for schedular TDIU precedes 2016 because of a combi-
 nation of two of his disabilities and (2) in the remand pro-
 ceeding that he is owed TDIU before 2016 because of his
 PTSD alone are part of a single claim.
     We “generally decline[] to review non-final orders of the
 Veterans Court.” Williams v. Principi, 275 F.3d 1361, 1363
 (Fed. Cir. 2002) (citation omitted). Under Williams, all the-
 ories to entitlement stemming from a single claim must be
 finally rejected by the Veterans Court to be fit for our re-
 view, with narrow exceptions not applicable here.
 Accordingly,
     IT IS ORDERED THAT:
     The appeal is dismissed. Each party shall bear its own
 costs.

                                    FOR THE COURT

 March 9, 2023                      /s/ Peter R. Marksteiner
     Date                           Peter R. Marksteiner
                                    Clerk of Court