WASHINGTON D.C. — U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of thousands of so-called Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and their survivors Nov. 5.
The ruling was in response to a motion filed by attorneys
from the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) to enforce the
29-Year Old Class Action Consent Decree in Nehmer v. U.S. Department of
Veterans Administration. The Court ordered the VA to automatically readjudicate
thousands of benefits claims that the Court found had been wrongly denied under
the Consent Decree. The Court also ordered the VA to pay retroactive
compensation if it finds the veteran served in the territorial seas of Vietnam.
“We applaud the Court’s recognition that Blue Water Navy
Vietnam Veterans and their survivors have been wrongly denied retroactive
disability and death benefits ever since 2002, when VA reversed its prior
position and denied the presumption of Agent Orange exposure to veterans who
served in the territorial seas of Vietnam,” said National Veterans Legal
Services Program Executive Director Bart Stichman. “These veterans and their
surviving family members have already been waiting years for benefits to which
they are entitled under the Consent Decree simply because they did not set foot
in the land mass of Vietnam.”
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