Tag: Principi

Panel Application; Otero-Castro v. Principi, 16 Vet.App. 375, 380 (2002) (“The basic principles that apply to construing statutes apply equally to construing regulations.”). If it is not clear, “the Court may look to other sources, including the history and purpose of the regulation.” Bailey v. Wilkie, 33 Vet.App. 188, 194 (2021); see Kisor, 139 S. Ct. at 2415 (explaining that to exhaust the traditional tools of regulatory construction, “a court must ‘carefully consider[]’ the text, structure, history, and purpose of a regulation” (quoting Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843 n.9 (1984))). “[D]eference [to the Agency] can arise only if a regulation is genuinely ambiguous[,] . . . after a court has resorted to all the standard tools of interpretation.” Kisor, 139 S. Ct. at 2414;
Single Judge Application; reason and bases; Dela Cruz v. Principi, 15 Vet.App. 143, 149 (2001); failure discuss all the evidence favorable to a claimant; Gabrielson v. Brown, 7 Vet.App. 36, 40 (1994); the Board cannot “evade [its] statutory responsibility [to state the reasons or bases for its conclusions] merely by adopting [a medical opinion] as its own” where the medical opinion “fails to discuss all the evidence which appears to support [the] appellant’s position.” Gabrielson v. Brown, 7 Vet.App. 36, 40 (1994). Gabrielson does not require that a medical opinion discuss all the evidence favorable to a claimant, only that the Board, in relying on an opinion that does not do so, discuss any additional favorable evidence to comply with its duty to provide an adequate statement of reasons or bases for its decision. See id.; 38 U.S.C. § 7104(d)(1); see also Dela Cruz v. Principi, 15 Vet.App. 143, 149 (2001) (holding that, although the Board must consider all of the evidence of record, “a discussion of all evidence is not required when . . . the Board has supported its decision with thorough reasons or bases regarding the relevant evidence”);
Single Judge Application; § 5110; equitable tolling; On June 17, 2021, the Federal Circuit issued Arellano, which declined to revisit the rule that “equitable tolling is inapplicable to § 5110’s effective date rules.” Arellano v. McDonough, __ F.3d. , , 2021 WL 2460647at *18 (Fed. Cir. June 17, 2021) (6-6 decision) (Chen, J, concurring) (referencing Andrews v. Principi, 351 F.3d 1134, 1137-38 (Fed. Cir. 2003));
Arellano v. McDonough, No. 2020-1073(Decided: June 17, 2021, PER CURIAM); equitable tolling with respect to 38 U.S.C. § 5110(b)(1); Andrews v. Principi, 351 F.3d 1134 (Fed. Cir. 2003), which held that principles of equitable tolling are not applicable to the time period in 38 U.S.C. § 5110(b)(1);