## Facts

- Robert M. Sellers, a veteran, filed a VA compensation application in March 1996 listing specific physical conditions (leg, knee, back, finger, and ears) and added a general remark requesting service connection for “disabilities occurring during active duty service.”
- While processing the 1996 application, VA obtained medical records that included evidence of psychological treatment, but VA adjudicated only the explicitly listed physical conditions.
- In 2009, Sellers filed a claim that VA treated as an informal claim for service connection for major depressive disorder (MDD).
- VA granted service connection for MDD with an effective date of September 18, 2009.
- Sellers sought an earlier effective date for MDD back to March 11, 1996, arguing that his 1996 filing and VA-obtained records implicitly encompassed a psychiatric claim.
- The Board of Veterans’ Appeals denied an earlier effective date.
- The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims reversed, holding the 1996 filing could be a formal claim for an unspecified disability if the condition was reasonably identifiable from the medical record.
- The Secretary appealed to the Federal Circuit.

## Issues

1. Under the formal-claim rules applicable in 1996, does a generalized request for service connection for “disabilities” combined with medical records showing a psychiatric condition constitute a formal claim for that psychiatric condition?
2. Must a legally sufficient formal claim identify the claimed medical condition at least at a high level of generality, rather than relying on conditions discernible only from the medical record?

## Decision

- The Federal Circuit reversed the Veterans Court and reinstated the Board’s denial of an earlier effective date.
- A legally sufficient formal claim must identify, at least at a high level of generality, the medical condition for which benefits are sought.
- Sellers’ 1996 application, read as a whole, identified only physical injuries and did not identify any psychiatric condition, even generally.
- Because no formal claim for MDD was made in 1996, the effective date for MDD could not relate back to that filing; September 18, 2009 remained the effective date.

## Legal Principles

- VA’s duty to assist in obtaining records and developing evidence is triggered by receipt of a formal claim that identifies the condition for which benefits are sought.
- A claimant’s broadly worded reference to “disabilities,” without identifying a condition at least generally, is not a formal claim for every condition that might be found in medical records.
- Medical evidence may support or develop an asserted claim, but it does not, by itself, create new claims for unmentioned conditions.
- An effective-date award cannot be based on a theory that VA must infer and adjudicate any compensable condition “reasonably identifiable” from the record absent a claim identifying that condition.

## Conclusion

The Federal Circuit held that, under the pre-2015 claim framework, a formal VA compensation claim must identify the disability being claimed at least generally; Sellers’ 1996 application did not do so for MDD, so his MDD effective date could not be earlier than September 18, 2009.


Sellers v. Wilkie, 965 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2020)