Ellis C. Smith v. R. James Nicholson

I must respectfully dissent from the majority opinion with Respect to the issue of the Court’s jurisdiction as discussed in III. B.l. The Court has jurisdiction to determine its jurisdiction over a case. See Henderson v. West, 12 Vet.App. 11 (1998). In my view, the majority’s decision to remand the question of the appellant’s entitlement to a compensable rating under the pre-1999 DC 6260 is outside this Court’s jurisdiction pursuant to 38 U.S.C. §§ 502 and 7252(b) and contrary to the Federal Circuit’s decisions in Wanner v. Principi, 370 F.3d 1124 (Fed.Cir.2004(Wanner II) and Smith v.…