91-239 Clifford Hauck V. Jesse Brown

[deltaj]

Could someone please visit the website of the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals and put up a link to 91-239 Clifford Hauck v. Jesse Brown? This case of Hauck v. Brown has been used as a citation in quite a few other cases. Here is an excerpt taken from 87-7045 Garrett Hayre v. Togo West that mentions Hauck v. Brown: In cases of grave procedural error, however, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has consistently held that RO or Board decisions are not final forpurposes of direct appeal. See Tablazon v. Brown, 8 Vet. App. 359, 361 (1995) (concluding that"where VA has failed to procedurally comply with statutorily mandated requirements, a claim does not become final for purposes of appeal to the [Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims]"; Hauck v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 518, 519 (1994) (holding that where an appellant "never received

notification of any denial . . . , the one-year period within which to file an NOD, which

commences with 'the date of mailing of notice of the result of initial review or determination,' did

not begin to run"); Kuo v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 662, 666 (1992) (stating that where an

appellant and his representative had not properly been furnished with a Statement of the Case, the

period in which to appeal the adjudicative determination in question never commenced to run and

that determination was not final); see also Ashley v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 307, 311 (1992)

(holding that where the Board did not mail decision in accordance with the provisions of 38

U.S.C. º 7104(e), the period within which to appeal to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

did not commence to run). A breach of the duty to assist in which the VA failed to obtain

pertinent SMRs specifically requested by the claimant and failed to provide the claimant with

notice explaining the deficiency is a procedural error of, at least, comparable gravity that vitiates

the finality of an RO decision for purposes of direct appeal.