VA's Obligation to Submit Alleged Stressors to the JSRRC: Send It Again

Gagne v. McDonald, Case Number 14-0334, was decided October 19, 2015 and concerns

the duty to assist within the confines of a confirmation of a PSTD stressor and the VA’s obligation to send a request to the JSRRC to confirm the event.

The veteran was diagnosed with PTSD and submitted a claim for it.  The alleged stressor was that sometime in 1967 or 1968 while in Thailand while he was assisting in building a road his sergeant was crushed between two large vehicles and the veteran tried to assist with the very bloody wounds.

The VA sent letters to the veteran asking him to state within a 2 month date when the event took place.  The veteran wrote that the incident occurred in 1967 or 1968.  A review of the veteran’s military records showed he was a driver with the engineering company in Thailand from August 1967 through August 1968.

The VA never submitted the claim to the JSRRC for confirmation because the claims adjudication manual requires the search be narrowed to a 60 day period, which was apparently done at the request of the JSRRC staff.  The Court looked at the relevant code section which states the “VA will end its efforts to obtain records from a Federal department or agency only if VA concludes that the records sought do not exist or that further efforts to obtain those records would be futile.” 

The Court also at the  implementing regulation and determined it states the veteran must provide enough information to identify and locate the existing records including the appropriate time frame and that “the claimant must provide information ‘sufficient’ for the records custodian to conduct a search for the corroborative records.” 

The Court noted the regulation does not define “sufficient” or grant the records custodian or VA the authority to define the parameters of sufficient.  It also noted the VA should make as many requests as necessary and should only quit when the search would become “futile”.  The Court stated the “VA did not, at the very least, submit multiple requests to the JSRRC, each covering a different 60-day period.”

The Court noted that it does not support creating JSRRC fishing expeditions, but also noted with regard to multiple requests that it does “not find the 13-month period in this case to be unreasonably long, given the particulars of the stressor provided by the appellant.”

This is an important case as it helps explain the VA’s duty to assist in confirming stressors, and makes clear multiple request to the JSRRC are called for when the stressor is defined and clear.

Decision written by Greenberg, joined in by J. Kasold and Davis.