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Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Late Benefits Case Involving Veteran Suffering From PTSD

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


The U.S. Supreme Court has announced a major decision regarding a case involving a veteran suffering from PTSD.

According to SCOTUS Blog, the nation’s highest court will consider “equitable tolling” for a U.S. Navy veteran who did not file a claim within the allotted timeframe under existing law.

“If a veteran of the United States Armed Forces sustains an injury during military service, they may be entitled to disability benefits. If they apply for benefits within a year of separating from the military, benefits may begin retroactively to the day after service,” the blog noted.

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“Yet, if a veteran fails to apply for those benefits within a year of discharge, they stand to lose thousands of dollars because the law currently does not permit equitable tolling – the doctrine that allows individuals, in some circumstances, to pursue a claim after a statutory deadline has expired. That may change after the Supreme Court hears Arellano v. McDonough, which will be argued on Tuesday. This case will determine if a veteran can file a claim many years after service and be paid disability benefits back to the day after their discharge from the military,” the blog continued.

The case revolves around Adolfo Arellano, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1977 to 1981, during which time he served on the U.S.S. Midway. an aircraft carrier that was built during World War II and launched eight days after hostilities ended. During his stint aboard the carrier, Arellano said he witnessed fellow sailors being injured and killed, while he himself was nearly crushed and swept overboard, the blog noted further.

In the aftermath, the former sailor began to suffer severe mental health conditions and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“The severity of his condition left him unable to understand that he was eligible to file a claim for disability benefits with the Department of Veteran Affairs. When he finally filed a claim for benefits 30 years later with the assistance of his brother, the VA agreed that his mental health condition was related to his military service and that it was totally disabling. As a result, the VA began paying him disability benefits — but only as of the date he filed his claim in June 2011,” the SCOTUS blog reported.

Arellano appealed the decision and asked that the timetable regarding the statute, found in 38 United States Code, be “equitably tolled” in order to provide an earlier date for payment of benefits.

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“Equitable tolling allows courts, or in this case, an agency, to excuse missed deadlines in some circumstances. To obtain equitable tolling, a person must show that they were unable to pursue a claim due to extraordinary circumstances that prevented them from filing in time,” SCOTUS Blog noted.

If Arellano manages to win his case, he would receive retroactive VA benefits from his 1981 separation date from the Navy until the date he filed his initial claim. That would amount to roughly $600,000 in back pay, the blog reported.

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, unanimously found that equitable tolling is not available to Arellano, but was split on whether the statute could be equitably tolled. The court was split on whether this statute was a statute of limitations and entitled to the Irwin presumption,” the blog said.

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“In Irwin v. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Supreme Court established a rebuttable presumption that equitable tolling applies to statutes of limitation. Half of the court joined Judge Raymond Chen’s concurrence that found that the statute in question is not a statute of limitations and thus, the Irwin presumption does not apply,” SCOTUS Blog noted further.

The court blog added there are fears among some that, should the Supreme Court find in favor of Arellano, that will open a floodgate of claims from former veterans. However, “while the VA could see a surge in disability claims, veterans will still be required to show an extraordinary reason why they could not or failed to file within that one year of separation from the military,” the blog concluded.

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