O'CONNOR V DVA, No. 10-7086 (Fed. Cir. 2010)
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NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit __________________________ VERA O CONNOR, Claimant-Appellant, v. ERIC K. SHINSEKI, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, Respondent-Appellee. __________________________ 2010-7086 __________________________ Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in case no. 08-2168, Judge Lawrence B. Hagel. __________________________ Decided: October 12, 2010 __________________________ VERA O CONNOR, of Shreveport, Louisiana, pro se. SHARI A. ROSE, Trial Attorney, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, of Washington, DC, for respondent-appellee. With her on the brief were TONY WEST, Assistant Attorney General, JEANNE E. DAVIDSON, Director, and MARTIN F. HOCKEY, JR., Assistant Director. Of counsel on the O'CONNOR v. DVA 2 brief were DAVID J. BARRANS, Deputy Assistant General Counsel, JONATHAN E. TAYLOR, Attorney, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, of Washington, DC. __________________________ Before GAJARSA, MAYER, and MOORE, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM. Vera N. O Connor appeals the judgment of the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims that denied her claim for an earlier effective date for service connection for her husband s lung cancer. O Connor v. Shinseki, No. 08-2168 (Ct. Vet. App. March 23, 2010). We dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Our authority to review a decision of the Veterans Court is limited. We may review such a decision only to the extent that it pertains to the validity of a rule of law or of any statute or regulation . . . or any interpretation thereof (other than a determination as to a factual matter), or to interpret constitutional and statutory provisions, to the extent presented and necessary to a decision. 38 U.S.C. §§ 7292(a), 7292(c). Absent the presentation of a constitutional issue, we do not otherwise have jurisdiction to review either a challenge to a factual determination or a challenge to a law or regulation as applied to the facts of a particular case. 38 U.S.C. § 7292(d)(2). The Veterans Court found that, regardless of when the disability here lung cancer arose, under 38 C.F.R. § 3.816(c)(2) the effective date for disability benefits could not be prior to the date the claim was made. O Connor s appeal amounts to a challenge of the Veterans Court s application of the timing provisions of this regulation to the facts in this case. We lack jurisdiction to consider this 3 O'CONNOR v. DVA challenge. See Andre v. Principi, 301 F.3d 1354, 1362-63 (Fed. Cir. 2002). Additionally, the Veterans Court did not decide any constitutional issues, and O Connor s allegations of Fifth Amendment rights violations are generalized grievances of unfair treatment. These assertions do not raise legitimate constitutional issues; and, as such, they do not necessitate our review of the facts or application of law or regulation to fact. 38 U.S.C. § 7292(d)(2); see also Helfer v. West, 174 F.3d 1332, 1335 (Fed. Cir. 1999) ( [The] characterization of that question as constitutional in nature does not confer upon us jurisdiction that we otherwise lack. ). Thus, O Connor s appeal does not challenge the validity of any statute or regulation, nor does her appeal raise any genuine constitutional issue that could form the basis for our jurisdiction.
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