## Facts

- Leonard Beraud, a U.S. Navy veteran, filed a 1985 claim for service connection for a headache disorder allegedly related to in-service head trauma.
- The VA regional office (RO) requested information to locate additional service medical records, then denied the headache claim in 1985 and notified Beraud of appellate rights.
- Within the one-year appeal period, Beraud submitted a letter identifying where additional relevant service records could be found.
- The RO did not respond to the letter and did not make a determination whether the submission (or any obtained records) was “new and material” evidence for the 1985 claim.
- Beraud later sought to reopen the headache claim; the RO denied it again in 1990, and later denied additional reopening attempts in 1992 and 2002.
- In 2004, after another claim, the RO granted service connection for headaches and assigned an effective date of August 27, 2004.
- The Board of Veterans’ Appeals treated the earlier denials as final and rejected an earlier effective date; the Veterans Court agreed the 1985 claim remained pending under 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(b) but held the 2004 grant “closed” the 1985 claim based on later-final-decision principles.

## Issues

1. Whether, under 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(b), the VA’s failure to determine whether evidence submitted within the one-year appeal period was “new and material” prevents finality and keeps the original claim pending.
2. Whether a later final adjudication of the same disability can terminate a prior claim’s pending status when the VA has not made the required § 3.156(b) determination.

## Decision

- The Federal Circuit reversed the Veterans Court and remanded.
- The court held that because the VA failed to determine whether Beraud’s timely submission was new and material under § 3.156(b), the 1985 claim remained pending as a matter of law.
- The court rejected the view that a later final decision on the same disability necessarily closes the earlier claim when § 3.156(b) was triggered but not satisfied.
- The court did not set an effective date; it left further proceedings to the agency on remand consistent with the continued-pending status of the 1985 claim.

## Legal Principles

- Under 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(b), new and material evidence received within the appeal period must be considered as filed in connection with the pending claim.
- The VA has an affirmative obligation to determine whether evidence received within the appeal period is “new and material”; without that determination, the claim does not become final and remains pending.
- A later final adjudication of an identical claim does not terminate the pending status of an earlier claim when the VA failed to perform its § 3.156(b) duty regarding timely submitted evidence.

## Conclusion

The Federal Circuit held that the VA’s failure to make the required § 3.156(b) new-and-material determination on timely submitted evidence prevents finality, leaving the original claim pending despite later final adjudications, and remanded for further proceedings that could affect the effective date.


Beraud v. McDonald, 766 F.3d 1402 (Fed. Cir. 2014)