# Brewer v. Principi

> United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims · February 22, 2002 · 15 Vet. App. 432

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9502293

## Case

- **Full name:** Flora T. BREWER, Appellant, v. Anthony J. PRINCIPI, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Appellee
- **Court:** United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
- **Decided:** February 22, 2002
- **Citations:** 15 Vet. App. 432; 2002 WL 264809
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Steinberg
- **Judges:** Ivers, Steinberg, Greene
- **Cited by:** 1 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

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- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9502293

## Opinion text

STEINBERG, Judge,
concurring:
The Court’s precedents clearly sanction the exercise of discretion by the single judge not to address non-reversal remand grounds. See Mahl v. Principi, 15 Vet.App. 37, 37-40 (2001); Best v. Principi 15 Vet.App. 18, 19-20 (2001). Although I disagree with the decision to exercise discretion in this fashion, see Mahl, 15 Vet.App. at 40-47 (Steinberg, J., dissenting), especially where the appellant, as in the instant case, has asserted a number of remand grounds with persuasiveness and the Secretary has chosen not to counter those arguments, my position is clearly not in the majority — generally or in this case — • and my vote cannot change the panel’s decision here to deny a panel decision that could address these grounds. Hence, I have decided in this and future similar cases not to delay a VCAA remand in order for me to address, in a solitary way, the nonreversal remand grounds asserted by the appellant. I am hopeful, nonetheless, that on remand the Board will be particularly scrupulous in seeking to avoid repetition of questionable adjudicative actions that it took in the decision on appeal, so that a future, second appeal — and a possible second remand — may be unnecessary.
As to the appellant’s arguments for reversal, the Secretary effectively rebutted those arguments in his brief in response to the appellant’s opening brief. The evidence in support of service connection for the cause of the appellant’s husband’s death is not uncontroverted, and reversal therefore is not the appropriate remedy. See Secretary’s Brief at 11-15; Gilbert v. Derwinski 1 Vet.App. 49, 58-59 (1990); *433 see also Hicks v. Brown, 8 Vet.App. 417, 422 (1995).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9502293. Public record. Not legal advice.