BVA9506530 
DOCKET NO.  93-10 470     )       DATE
          )
          )

On appeal from the decision of the
Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Denver,
Colorado

THE ISSUE

Whether new and material evidence has been submitted to reopen a
claim for service connection for a right knee disability.

REPRESENTATION

Appellant represented by: Disabled American Veterans

WITNESS AT HEARING ON APPEAL

Appellant

ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD

John M. Clarkson, III

INTRODUCTION

The veteran had active service from June 1972 to June 1975.  This
appeal originally arose from a June 1992 rating action of the
Denver, Colorado Regional Office (RO) which denied a compensable
evaluation for service-connected chondromalacia of the left knee,
as well as denied secondary service connection for chondromalacia
of the right knee.  By rating action of February 1993, the RO
granted a 10 percent evaluation for left knee chondromalacia;
this represents a substantial grant of the benefit sought on
appeal with respect to that issue.

REMAND

As noted above, this appeal was originally developed by the RO as
a claim for service connection for right knee chondromalacia as
secondary to the service-connected left knee chondromalacia.  At
the hearing on appeal, the veteran revised his contentions and
claimed service connection for right knee chondromalacia on a
direct service-incurrence basis.  Additional evidence entered
into the record includes the aforementioned hearing testimony and
a March 1992 VA examination report wherein the examiner indicated
that the right knee chondromalacia was incurred at the same time
and manner as the service-connected left knee.  As the veteran
has not argued his claim for service-connected right knee
chondromalacia on a secondary basis, the Board of Veterans'
Appeals (Board) construes his claim to be whether new and
material evidence has been submitted to reopen the claim for
service connection on a direct service-incurrence basis.  The RO
has not addressed the issue of whether the aforementioned items
of evidence are new and material other than to notify the veteran
that he had to submit new and material evidence to reopen his
claim.  Accordingly the case is REMANDED to the RO for the
following:

The RO should formally adjudicate the issue
of whether new and material evidence has
been submitted to reopen the claim of
service connection for right knee
chondromalacia on a direct service-
incurrence basis.

Should the veteran's claim not be granted, he and his
representative should be furnished an appropriate supplemental
statement of the case, and the case should be returned to the
Board for further appellate consideration.

          C.W. SYMANSKI
          Member, Board of Veterans' Appeals

The Board of Veterans' Appeals Administrative Procedures
Improvement Act, Pub. L. No. 103-271, § 6, 108 Stat. 740, ___
(1994), permits a proceeding instituted before the Board to be
assigned to an individual member of the Board for a
determination.  This proceeding has been assigned to an
individual member of the Board.

Under 38 U.S.C.A. § 7252 (West 1991), only a decision of the
Board of Veterans' Appeals is appealable to the United States
Court of Veterans Appeals.  This remand is in the nature of a
preliminary order and does not constitute a decision of the Board
on the merits of your appeal.  38 C.F.R. § 20.1100(b)(1994).