Filed: Oct. 27, 2020
Latest Update: Oct. 27, 2020
Summary: Case: 20-1349 Document: 20 Page: 1 Filed: 10/27/2020 NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit _ DANIEL L. CURTIS, Claimant-Appellant v. ROBERT WILKIE, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, Respondent-Appellee _ 2020-1349 _ Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in No. 18-6818, Judge Michael P. Allen. _ Decided: October 27, 2020 _ DANIEL L. CURTIS, Mosca, CO, pro se. JANA MOSES, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Di- v
Summary: Case: 20-1349 Document: 20 Page: 1 Filed: 10/27/2020 NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit _ DANIEL L. CURTIS, Claimant-Appellant v. ROBERT WILKIE, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, Respondent-Appellee _ 2020-1349 _ Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in No. 18-6818, Judge Michael P. Allen. _ Decided: October 27, 2020 _ DANIEL L. CURTIS, Mosca, CO, pro se. JANA MOSES, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Di- vi..
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Case: 20-1349 Document: 20 Page: 1 Filed: 10/27/2020
NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
DANIEL L. CURTIS,
Claimant-Appellant
v.
ROBERT WILKIE, SECRETARY OF VETERANS
AFFAIRS,
Respondent-Appellee
______________________
2020-1349
______________________
Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for
Veterans Claims in No. 18-6818, Judge Michael P. Allen.
______________________
Decided: October 27, 2020
______________________
DANIEL L. CURTIS, Mosca, CO, pro se.
JANA MOSES, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Di-
vision, United States Department of Justice, Washington,
DC, for respondent-appellee. Also represented by JEFFREY
B. CLARK, CLAUDIA BURKE, ROBERT EDWARD KIRSCHMAN,
JR.; CHRISTINA LYNN GREGG, BRIAN D. GRIFFIN, Office of
General Counsel, United States Department of Veterans
Affairs, Washington, DC.
______________________
Case: 20-1349 Document: 20 Page: 2 Filed: 10/27/2020
2 CURTIS v. WILKIE
Before NEWMAN, DYK, and HUGHES, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
Appellant Daniel L. Curtis appeals the memorandum
decision of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans
Claims affirming the Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision
to deny Mr. Curtis an effective date earlier than February
6, 2013, for service connection for coronary artery disease.
Curtis v. Wilkie, No. 18-6818,
2019 WL 4309770 (Vet. App.
Sept. 12, 2019) (Decision). Mr. Curtis also makes argu-
ments related to a reasonably raised claim for service con-
nection for anxiety and to his requests for specific paper
records. Because Mr. Curtis only challenges factual deter-
minations or the application of law to fact, issues we lack
jurisdiction to review, we dismiss.
I
Mr. Curtis served on active duty in the United States
Army from December 1969 to September 1972. Decision
at *1. On February 6, 2013, the Department of Veterans
Affairs received Mr. Curtis’s claim for service connection
for coronary artery disease. Appellant’s Br. 120. 1 VA
granted presumptive service connection based on exposure
to Agent Orange and assigned a 100 percent rating, effec-
tive February 6, 2013.
Id.
Mr. Curtis appealed the effective date assigned for his
service-connected coronary artery disease to the Board, as-
serting that the effective date should have been as early as
the day after his discharge from service, because he filed a
claim for service connection for a heart disorder within a
1 Citations to Mr. Curtis’s informal brief (and the
pages and documents included therein) reflect the pagina-
tion applied by this court’s electronic case files system,
Docket No. 3.
Case: 20-1349 Document: 20 Page: 3 Filed: 10/27/2020
CURTIS v. WILKIE 3
year of his separation from the military.
Id. In support of
his claim, Mr. Curtis submitted a copy of his application for
medical benefits form dated October 19, 1972, and a medi-
cal record dated October 19, 1972.
Id. at 121.
On November 9, 2018, the Board denied an effective
date earlier than February 6, 2013.
Id. at 117. The Board
considered the statements of both Mr. Curtis and his
friend, Joe Funk, submitted in connection with his Febru-
ary 2013 claim about symptoms going back to 1972. Deci-
sion at *2. The Board also considered Mr. Curtis’s
correspondence sent to VA in October 1972, which it deter-
mined was an application for medical benefits rather than
disability benefits.
Id. Further, the section where medical
conditions should be listed was left blank, and the treat-
ment record that accompanied the application indicated a
diagnosis of a potential viral infection rather than a heart
disorder.
Id. Accordingly, the Board found that Mr. Cur-
tis’s February 6, 2013, claim for service connection was the
first claim for a heart disorder and the earliest effective
date that could be assigned.
Id.
The Veterans Court held that the Board had ade-
quately considered the 1972 application and medical rec-
ord, and thus did not err in finding that the application and
medical record did not constitute a claim for benefits.
Id.
II
This court lacks jurisdiction to review factual issues
and issues of application of law to fact. Cook v. Principi,
353 F.3d 937, 939 (Fed. Cir. 2003); see also 38 U.S.C.
§ 7292(d)(2). “[F]actual findings of when a disability was
claimed or service connection established are not subject to
our review.” Butler v. Shinseki,
603 F.3d 922, 926 (Fed.
Cir. 2010). Because Mr. Curtis’s appeal raises only such
issues, we dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
Mr. Curtis also argues that we should remand for the
Board to address whether a claim for service connection for
Case: 20-1349 Document: 20 Page: 4 Filed: 10/27/2020
4 CURTIS v. WILKIE
anxiety was raised by an August 2013 VA examination of
his heart. 2 However, the Veterans Court determined that
Mr. Curtis did not produce any documents that indicated
an intent to file a claim for anxiety, and “the interpretation
of the contents of a claim for benefits [is] a factual issue
over which we [do] not have jurisdiction.” Ellington v.
Peake,
541 F.3d 1364, 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2008).
Finally, Mr. Curtis attempts to frame his request to ac-
cess his paper claims file in constitutional terms, asserting
that his case presents the constitutional issue of whether
“an electronic file disclosure meet[s] the Due Process right
to view the paper file.” Appellant’s Br. 1 at item 3. The
Veterans Court considered Mr. Curtis’s request for access
to the paper file but concluded that “it [was] not clear what
additional information [Mr. Curtis] could require or that
VA committed error by failing to provide it. Thus, he ha[d]
failed to fully develop this argument, and the [Veterans]
Court need not consider it further.” Decision at *3. This
Court does not have jurisdiction to review an issue not de-
cided by the Veterans Court because it determined that the
issue was not adequately raised. Andre v. Principi,
301 F.3d 1354, 1362–63 (Fed. Cir. 2002). Accordingly, we
do not have jurisdiction to review this issue.
III
Because we lack jurisdiction to review the issues raised
by Mr. Curtis in this appeal, we dismiss.
DISMISSED
No Costs.
2 The Secretary notes that Mr. Curtis is service con-
nected for PTSD with a 100% rating since 1992, which con-
templates anxiety symptoms. Decision at *3.