[Download] "Huffman v. Office of Personnel Management" by Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Huffman v. Office of Personnel Management
- Author : Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
- Release Date : January 15, 2001
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 72 KB
Description
National Organization of Veterans Advocates, Inc., ("NOVA"), Disabled American Veterans ("DAV"), and Paralyzed Veterans of America ("PVA") (collectively, "petitioners"), challenge the validity of a regulation promulgated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, 38 C.F.R. § 3.22 (2000). That regulation, as revised in January 2000, restricts the award of dependency and indemnity compensation ("DIC") benefits to survivors of deceased veterans to cases where the veteran (during his or her lifetime) had established a right to receive total service-connected disability compensation for the period of time required by the governing statute, 38 U.S.C. § 1318 (1994), or would have established such right but for clear and unmistakable error by the Department of Veterans Affairs in adjudicating the veterans claim. We conclude that the revised regulation is inconsistent with another regulation, 38 C.F.R. § 20.1106, that interprets a virtually identical veterans benefits statute, 38 U.S.C. § 1311(a)(2). We further conclude that the agency has failed to explain its rationale for interpreting these virtually identical statutes in conflicting ways. We therefore remand this case to the Department of Veterans Affairs for further consideration.