Jeffery A. Wells v. Anthony J. Principi

I respectfully dissent from the denial of en banc consideration in this case. The appellant seeks en banc review so that the Court might address (1) our application of the “clearly erroneous” standard of review; (2) the benefit-of-the-doubt rule; and (3) the doctrine that once this Court finds an issue warranting remand, we generally will not address other issues (aka the Best rule). I believe en banc review is warranted because these issues are of exceptional importance to our judicial review and there is a lack of uniformity or clarity in our caselaw in each of these areas. See U.S.…