Ruel v. Wilkie

Chen, Circuit Judge.

*940 Teresa A. Ruel, the surviving spouse of a U.S. veteran, appeals from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Veterans Court) decision affirming a Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) decision denying her an effective date of 1984, rather than 2009, for her Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) claim. Mrs. Ruel first filed a DIC claim in 1984. The Board found that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) had denied Mrs. Ruel's 1984 DIC claim in a single sentence of a response to a separate burial benefits claim that had found no service…