BVA9507999 
DOCKET NO.  85-05 302     )       DATE
          )
          )

On appeal from the decision of the
Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Nashville,
Tennessee

THE ISSUE

Entitlement to service connection for arthritis.

REPRESENTATION

Appellant represented by: William L. Abernathy, Jr.,
Attorney

ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD

Hilary L. Goodman, Counsel

The veteran had active service from November 1942 to December
1943.

The decision of the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) entered on
May 16, 1985, considered the veteran's appeal for service
connection for arthritis on a de novo basis.  At the time of the
Board's decision, the record included an unappealed rating
decision entered in April 1944 which had denied the veteran's
claim for service connection for arthritis.  The originating
agency, in a December 1983 rating decision, had continued the
denial of service connection for arthritis.  As the question
before the Board in May 1985 was whether new and material
evidence had been submitted to reopen the veteran's claim for
entitlement to service connection for arthritis, the Board was
without authority to consider the veteran's claim on a de novo
basis.

Accordingly, the Board's decision of May 16, 1985, is hereby
vacated.

          ROBERT D. PHILIPP
          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 decision to vacate is in the
nature of a preliminary order and does not constitute a decision
of the Board on the merits of your appeal.