Jesse Brown, Secretary of Veterans Affairs v. Fred P. Gardner (513 U.S. 115)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 12, 1994 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 513 U.S. 115 · 115 S. Ct. 552
- Decided
- December 12, 1994
- Term
- October Term 1994
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Souter
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case we decide whether a regulation of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 38 CFR § 3.358(c)(3) (1993), requiring a claimant for certain veterans’ benefits to prove that disability resulted from negligent treatment by the VA or an accident occurring during treatment, is consistent with the controlling statute, 38 U. S. C. § 1151 (1988 ed., Supp. V). We hold that it is not. I Fred R Gardner, a veteran of the Korean conflict, received surgical treatment in a VA facility for a herniated disc unrelated to his prior military service. Gardner then had pain and weakness in his left calf, ankle, and foot, which he alleged was the result of the surgery. He claimed disability benefits under § 1151, which provides that the VA will compensate for “an injury, or an aggravation of an injury,” that occurs “as the result of hospitalization, medical or surgical treatment, or the pursuit of a course of vocational rehabilitation” provided under any of the laws administered by the VA, so long as the injury was “not the result of such veteran’s own willful misconduct. . . .” The VA and the Board of Veterans’ Appeals denied Gardner’s claim for benefits, on the ground that § 1151, as interpreted by 38 CFR § 3.358(c)(3) (1993), only covers an injury if it “proximately resulted [from] carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill, error in…
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