The case was published on March 26, 2025.

This is a case that can be confusing and we will try to distill it down to its core for everyone.

The foundation: Mr. Johnson filed a claim in 2016 for conditions which are conceded by VA to have been caused by Agent Orange. VAThe veteran timely appealed to the Board, but in the intervening time, the PACT Act was passed and the veteran contemporaneously filed a supplemental appeal, for the same contention, which was granted by the RO in December 2023.

The Board then found his initial Board appeal moot and dismissed it. The veteran appealed to the Court because the appel would have given him a much earlier effective date.

The Issue: Is a contention on appeal, which has subsequently been granted service-connection under a liberalizing law, moot?

The Holding: No. The veteran’s underlying issue (whether service connection was warranted under the previous laws) was never decided and was a separate issue and claim stream; therefore, the issues raised in it are not moot and must be decided before the effective date is decided.

The court was clear that this case was not only about the effective date, it was about the issue of whether this veteran was entitled to service connection under the argument he presented when he first appealed to the Board. The effective date was a secondary issue that could only be addressed in the first instance once the service-connection issues were addressed.

The court has recently handed out several decisions about separate claim streams (meaning legal issues related to a single contention), and they have clearly said each issue is unique and does not preclude a different issue on the same contention being in a different jurisdiction contemporaneously.