Mayfield v. Nicholson
| Decision Date | 05 April 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-7157.,05-7157. |
| Parties | Lizzie K. MAYFIELD, Claimant-Appellant, v. R. James NICHOLSON, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit |
Michael P. Horan, Paralyzed Veterans of America, of Washington, DC, argued for claimant-appellant. With him on the brief were Linda E. Blauhut and William S. Mailander.
Martin F. Hockey, Jr., Senior Trial Attorney, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, of Washington, DC, argued for respondent-appellee. With him on the brief were Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General and David M. Cohen, Director. Of counsel on the brief were Richard J. Hipolit, Assistant General Counsel and Martie S. Adelman, Staff Attorney, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, of Washington, DC.
Kenneth M. Carpenter, Carpenter, Chartered, of Topeka, Kansas, argued for amicus curiae The Veterans Law Group. On the brief was Mark R. Lippman, The Veterans Law Group, of La Jolla, California.
Before MICHEL, Chief Judge, MAYER, and BRYSON, Circuit Judges.
This case requires us to resolve an issue involving the notification provision of the Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-475, § 3(a), 114 Stat. 2096 ("VCAA"), codified at 38 U.S.C. § 5103(a). Based on various communications between the Department of Veterans Affairs ("VA") and the claimant-appellant, the Board of Veterans Appeals held that the VA had satisfied its obligations under the notification provision. The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims ("the Veterans Court") affirmed the Board's decision, but it did so based on a communication other than the ones the Board relied on. Mayfield v. Nicholson, 19 Vet.App. 103 (2005). We hold that it was improper for the Veterans Court to affirm the Board based on the court's analysis of a communication not relied on by the Board. We therefore reverse the court's order and remand for further proceedings.
Estey Mayfield, a veteran who served in the U.S. Army during the Second World War, was awarded service connection and a 50 percent disability rating in 1985 for a left-leg injury and varicosities of both legs. He died in 1999 of congestive heart failure due to coronary artery disease. Following Mr. Mayfield's death, his widow Lizzie K. Mayfield filed a claim for dependency and indemnity compensation ("DIC"). In order for her to be eligible for DIC benefits, Mr. Mayfield's death had to be the result of a service-connected disability. See 38 U.S.C. § 1310(a). Mrs. Mayfield alleged that the required causation was established because Mr. Mayfield's veins were in such poor condition that he was unable to undergo a bypass operation to treat his coronary artery disease.
A VA regional office denied Mrs. Mayfield's DIC claim on the ground that the evidence failed to establish any causal relationship between Mr. Mayfield's military service and his death. Mrs. Mayfield filed a notice of disagreement with the regional office's decision, and in June 2000 the regional office issued a Statement of the Case ("SOC") in which the regional office noted that "[n]o medical evidence has been presented which provides a link between the veteran's varicose vein condition and his death." Mrs. Mayfield then filed an appeal with the Board.
In December 2000, the Board remanded Mrs. Mayfield's claim to the regional office for readjudication in light of the recently enacted VCAA. The Board held that a remand was necessary for the VA to comply with the notice and duty-to-assist requirements of the new law. In particular, the Board directed the regional office to ensure that "the new notification requirements and development procedures contained in sections 3 and 4 of the Act (to be codified as amended at 38 U.S.C. §§ 5102, 5103, 5103A, and 5107) are fully complied with and satisfied." After doing so, the Board directed, the regional office should "readjudicate the issue on appeal," and if "the benefit sought on appeal remains denied, [Mrs. Mayfield and her representative] should be provided with a supplemental statement of the case."
On remand, the regional office sent Mrs. Mayfield a letter dated December 13, 2000, in which it asked that she "identify all VA and non-VA health care providers who have treated the veteran subsequent to service, and particularly any medical treatment rendered to the veteran during the period immediately preceding his death." In response, she submitted forms authorizing Mr. Mayfield's physicians to release his medical records and requesting that the physicians submit any medical evidence relating to his heart condition and his varicose veins, and in particular "any and all medical evidence which would help establish that [he] could not undergo treatment for [his] heart condition because of the severe varicosities of the lower extremities."
On March 15, 2001, the regional office sent Mrs. Mayfield a letter that presumably was intended to serve as the notice required by the VCAA. The letter informed her of the VA's duty to explain what information or evidence the VA needed to grant the benefit she wanted and its duty to assist her in obtaining that information or evidence. The letter then set forth the three requirements that must be satisfied to establish entitlement to service-connected death benefits: (1) the cause of death; (2) an injury, disease or event in service; and (3) a relationship between the cause of death and injury, disease, or event in service. The letter further explained what had been done to assist her with her claim and what information or evidence the VA still needed from Mrs. Mayfield.
Mrs. Mayfield responded that she "would like a medical opinion" on the likelihood that her husband's service-connected condition of varicose veins "may have contributed to the cause of his death." After the VA obtained Mr. Mayfield's medical records from several sources, a VA physician concluded that it was likely that Mr. Mayfield's death was related to his longstanding smoking and hypertension and that it was not likely that his varicose veins had any effect on the cause of death. In January 2002, the regional office advised Mrs. Mayfield that it was continuing to deny her request for benefits, and it issued a supplemental statement of the case explaining the reasons for its decision denying service connection for the cause of Mr. Mayfield's death.
The case was then returned to the Board, which sustained the regional office's decision denying service connection for the cause of death. With respect to the duty to notify and assist imposed by the VCAA, the Board found that the VA had satisfied those duties in Mrs. Mayfield's case. In discussing that issue, the Board made no reference to the March 15, 2001, letter to Mrs. Mayfield, but instead concluded that the duty of notification was satisfied by the combined contents of three documents that had been sent to Mrs. Mayfield: the December 1999 rating decision that explained the reasons for the denial of Mrs. Mayfield's claim, the June 2000 statement of the case, and the January 2002 supplemental statement of the case, which provided Mrs. Mayfield with what the Board characterized as "the applicable law and regulations pertaining to service connection for the cause of the veteran's death."
Mrs. Mayfield then appealed to the Veterans Court. In a single-judge order issued in March 2004, the court vacated the Board's decision and remanded the matter for readjudication. The court noted that although the Board stated that Mrs. Mayfield and her representative had been advised of the information and evidence necessary to substantiate her claim, there was no evidence in the record that the VA had complied with the regulation implementing the VCAA notification requirement, 38 C.F.R. § 3.159, and in particular the requirement that the VA "request that the claimant provide any evidence in the claimant's possession that pertains to the claim," id. § 3.159(b). Because the claimant "has not had the opportunity to benefit from and react to the notice that the Secretary was and is obligated to provide," the court ruled that "any conclusion by this Court that the appellant is not prejudiced would be pure speculation." Accordingly, "having taken `due account of the rule of prejudicial error' (38 U.S.C. § 7261(b))," the court remanded the matter for further proceedings.
The VA moved for reconsideration or panel review of the single-judge order. The VA first argued that the court had overlooked the portion of the March 2001 letter to Mrs. Mayfield that advised her that she should "submit any additional evidence that supports your claim for service connection for the cause of your husband's death," and specified the kinds of evidence that she should submit. That language, the VA argued, was sufficient to fulfill the requirement that the VA request that the claimant provide any evidence in her possession that pertains to the claim. Second, the VA argued that the court had failed to take account of the harmless error rule, because it had not required Mrs. Mayfield to show that if the VA had provided the requisite notice, "the outcome below would have been different."
The Veterans Court denied the motion for reconsideration of the single-judge order, but it granted the motion for a panel decision. The panel then issued a lengthy opinion that withdrew the single-judge order and affirmed the decision of the Board. The court noted that the Board had not relied on the March 15, 2001, letter as the basis for its conclusion that the VA had satisfied its obligations under the VCAA. Nonetheless, the court looked to that letter and concluded that the VA had fulfilled its obligations under the statutory notice requirement in 38 U.S.C. § 5103(a) and had substantially fulfilled its obligations under the regulatory notice requirement in 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(b). The court also concluded that Mrs. Mayfield...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Perciavalle v. McDonough, 17-3766
...that prejudice requires a showing that "the correction of the error would yield a different result"), rev'd on other grounds, 444 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2006). As this Court spelled out Simmons: [P]rejudice is established by demonstrating a disruption of the essential fairness of the adjudica......
-
Vazquez-Flores v. Shinseki
...provided to Vazquez-Flores and Schultz satisfied the VA's duty to notify in light of the foregoing analysis. See Mayfield v. Nicholson, 444 F.3d 1328, 1335 (Fed.Cir. 2006). COSTS Each party shall bear its own VACATED AND REMANDED 1. Under 38 C.F.R. § 3.321(a), the Schedule for Rating Disabi......
-
Tadlock v. McDonough
...violated Chenery by substituting a different rationale in support of its finding of no prejudicial error, citing Mayfield v. Nicholson , 444 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2006). The government argues in opposition that the Veterans Court was not only correct in reviewing the Board's decision for pre......
-
Sanders v. Nicholson
...VA and what evidence must be provided by the claimant" prior to the initial adjudication of his claim. Mayfield v. Nicholson, 444 F.3d 1328, 1333-34 (Fed.Cir. 2006) ("Mayfield II"). Moreover, the VA's duty to notify cannot be satisfied "by various post-decisional communications from which a......
-
Standards of Review and Federal Court Remedies
...a substantially factual determination of the type that should have been made by the agency in the first instance. Mayfield v. Nicholson , 444 F.3d 1328, 1334-1335 (Fed. Cir. 2006). §203.2 Practice Tip It is essential to show the reviewing court where to look in the record for evidence that ......
-
Standards of Review and Federal Court Remedies
...a substantially factual determination of the type that should have been made by the agency in the first instance. Mayfield v. Nicholson , 444 F.3d 1328, 1334-1335 (Fed. Cir. 2006). §203.2 Practice Tip: It is essential to show the reviewing court where to look in the record for evidence that......