hi everyone and welcome to cck live I'm Amy Odom I'm an attorney here at cck and
today I'm going to be talking about the recent Supreme Court decision in Ariana versus McDonough
now if you are a a avid watcher of cck lives you may remember this case we talked about it
a few months ago Mr Ariana is a veteran who served in the Navy in the 1970s as a result
of what he experienced during service he developed severe PTSD and he claims it was
so severe that he was unable to appreciate that he could file a claim or help himself in filing
filing a claim for VA disability benefits for nearly 30 years following his discharge
um it wasn't until 30 years later that his brother helped him in putting together a claim to file at
the at the VA for benefits for his his totally disabling PTSD that was in 2011 and the VA did
Grant the claim and assigned 100 rating but effective only 20 11 which is the date that
he filed his claim this is consistent with the law the statute 38 USC 5110a which says that the
effective date of benefits is that generally the date of the claim there is an exception
to that that rule though that's also found in the statute that's in subsection B which says that if
you file your claim within a year of discharge so Mr Ariana was was discharged in 81 so if he would
have filed a claim by 1982 then he can get the effective date of the day after discharge so his
effective date could have gone back to 81 had he filed that claim within the first year discharge
while Mr Ariano argued that that deadline should be extended that one-year deadline because of
his mental illness which which prevented him from being able to file a claim and this is
generally this extension is generally referred to as Equitable tolling and the general rule
is that if there is a statutory deadline to do something to file something for example to
file an appeal at the veterans court or to file a notice of disagreement at the VA then you can
get that deadline extended by this mechanism called Equitable tolling but you need to show
that there was an extraordinary circumstance and the courts all agree that a mental illness that
um actually prevents a veteran from being able to handle his own Affairs
is an extraordinary circumstances that generally will warn Equitable tolling
but the uh federal circuit court of appeals which is the Superior Court to the United
States court of appeals for veterans claims has long held that Equitable tolling is not available
um to that one year for that one-year deadline of filing a claim that that's
not the kind of deadline that Congress uh envisioned Equitable tolling would apply to
and they held that here in Mr Ariana's case he split uh onbank panel of the federal circuit
um on bug meaning all the judges so every judge on the federal circuit took a look at
Mr Ariana's case and a split uh Court issued a decision that basically upheld the previous
uh law which is that Equitable tolling doesn't apply to this one-year deadline and Mr Ariano
appealed that decision to the Supreme Court so now the Supreme Court of the United States for
the first time had the opportunity to review this question which is whether that deadline under 38
USC 5110b that one-year deadline for filing a claim um to get that effective date of the day
after discharge can be extended or equitably told in uh where there's an extraordinary circumstance
unfortunately the Supreme Court held that it cannot while there is a general presumption
so a general rule that Congress always intends for Equitable and tolling to apply to statutory
deadlines the court the Supreme Court here held that presumption was rebutted because 5110 the
statue setting out the effective dates of benefits has the general rule as we just discussed that the
effective date is tied to the date that you filed the claim and here for Mr Ariano that was 2011.
and Congress then provided specific exceptions to that rule 16 of them in fact and one of them
in fact is subsection B which is if you file the claim within a year your effective date
will go back to the day after discharge even if you know you file the claim 300 days after
discharge and so the Supreme Court held that because Congress created all these specific
exceptions that general rule and put them in the statute that clearly signaled that Congress did
not intend that the courts like the veterans Corps or the federal circuit or the Supreme
Court could create additional exceptions using the rule of Equitable tolling so what does this
mean for veterans well it means that Equitable tolling that is not available when we're talking
about deadlines to file claims with the VA for a specific effective dates now this does not mean
that all veterans must file times within a year of discharge that's only to get that effective
date of the day after the the day of discharge veterans can file claims at any time but this
case is about when you must file a claim to get an effective date of benefits that's earlier than
what the general rule provides which is it's the date of the claim it shouldn't really do
much as case to alter va's current practices we had all been operating under the assumption
because of the previous federal circuit federal circuit case law that Equitable
tolling didn't apply anyway so the Supreme Court has just confirmed that it does not
um and it you know this decision really emphasizes the importance of making sure you file your claim
as early as possible VA has um a program now where you can file what's called an intent to file form
even if you don't know exactly what you're going to claim aim or what disabilities you have you can
file this form and that will be a placeholder and your effective date will go back to the form the
date that you've submitted the form as long as you file an actual application within a year also um
the Department of Defense and VA are a little bit better at making sure that service service members
are informed about how where and when to file a claim than they were probably a Mr Ariana's time
um so you know both agencies should be assisting service members and preparing claims as they exit
from the military um and also the Supreme Court did leave open the possibility that there are
some situations where um those deadlines could be excused just not for Equitable
tolling for example in a footnote uh they identified um estoppel and waiver as potential
um ways you can get around those deadlines now those are going to be pretty difficult
cases generally establum waiver doesn't apply unless VA does something really bad
um that prevents you from being able to file a claim and we have a particular case right
now sitting at an onbound panel of the federal circuit called Taylor versus McDonough this case
involves a veteran who is a human test subject at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and was made to take a
vow of secrecy about what had happened to him um and told that he would be criminally prosecuted
if he did if he did divulge what had happened to him during Service as a human test subject
um and then many years later when the program was Declassified he filed his claims for VA benefits
and and the question before one of the questions before the federal circuit panel now is whether
uh the government can be a stopped or or legally uh prohibited from Raising
5110 in the general rule that it's the date of the claim of is the date of the affected
the effective date of the benefits When the government itself prevented him from
being able to file any earlier so all eyes on that case now um that we have the answer as
to whether Equitable tolling is available it's not but perhaps estoppel will be available in
situations like Mr Taylor's where the government prevented him from being able to file a claim
um and you know it's be sure to keep uh keep in touch with us we'll be giving progress
updates on Taylor and uh we really appreciate you joining us please be sure to follow us on social
And subscribe to our Channel and stay in the know about veteran related news and VA benefits updates
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