Combee v. Brown
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
34 F.3d 1039 (1994)

- Written by Carolyn Strutton, JD
Facts
Clyde Combee (plaintiff) was a World War II veteran who served as a military policeman in Nagasaki, Japan, approximately one to two weeks after the detonation of the atomic bomb in that city. During his time in Nagasaki, Combee consumed local, radiation-contaminated food and water, and he therefore qualified as a radiation-exposed veteran. In the decades after the war, Combee suffered from various medical conditions and applied multiple times for disability benefits with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) (defendant) but was denied. In 1989, Combee again applied for disability benefits for blood conditions that he believed were related to his radiation exposure. The VA again denied his claim, and Combee appealed to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (the board). The board upheld the VA’s denial, and the board’s decision was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (the veterans court). Both the board and the veterans court held Combee was not entitled to benefits because his conditions were not included in a group of diseases for which a presumption of service connection had been created for radiation-exposed veterans. Combee appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rader, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,400 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.