10-03 910, 10-03 910

Veteran served on active duty Feb 1968–Jan 1970 with additional Army National Guard service; claim relates to hypertension.
RO issued a January 2009 rating decision; Board previously remanded in 2012/2013 and denied service connection in March 2015.
Veteran appealed to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims; the parties filed a Joint Motion for Partial Remand (JMPR) in Feb 2016 which vacated the Board’s March 2015 denial and remanded for further development, including consideration of herbicide exposure.
In May 2016 the Board remanded for development; Veteran’s representative later submitted (Dec 2016) an argument and article excerpt asserting hypertension can be associated with PTSD and that hypertension may be secondary to the Veteran’s service‑connected PTSD.
The Board found no medical opinion addressing hypertension as caused/aggravated by service‑connected PTSD and ordered additional development, including an addendum VA opinion and updated VA treatment records since May 2016.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Service connection for hypertension as due to herbicide exposure	Veteran argues herbicide exposure is a theory of entitlement raised by JMPR and should be developed	VA has not established entitlement and further development is required	Remanded to obtain development on herbicide exposure theory per JMPR and prior remands
Service connection for hypertension as secondary to service‑connected PTSD	Veteran (via representative) contends PTSD can cause or aggravate hypertension; submitted an article linking PTSD to hypertension	No VA medical nexus opinion in record establishing causal or aggravative relationship	Remanded for an addendum VA medical opinion addressing whether hypertension is at least as likely as not caused or chronically aggravated by service‑connected PTSD; examiner to consider submitted article
Record development	Veteran seeks consideration of recent VA treatment records and evidence submitted post‑remand	VA must obtain and associate VA treatment records and document efforts	Remanded to obtain VA treatment records from North Florida/South Georgia VHA since May 2016 and associate them with the file

El‑Amin v. Shinseki, 26 Vet. App. 136 (2013) (medical nexus opinions required when evidence suggests a possible connection between service‑connected condition and another disability)
Bell v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 611 (1992) (VA is constructively in possession of records generated by its agents and must obtain them)
Kutscherousky v. West, 12 Vet. App. 369 (1999) (claimant may submit additional evidence after remand; Board must afford opportunity to do so)