THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 13, 1994 TAG: 9412130300
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN BISKUPIC, WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
In a major victory for the nation's veterans, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the government must pay benefits for injuries caused by veterans' hospitals even when the hospitals were not careless, negligent or otherwise at fault.
The unanimous opinion will reverse a longstanding government policy that denied benefits to many patients who came out of veterans hospitals in worse shape than when they went in.
About $1 billion in additional federal benefits may have to be paid over the next five years, the Department of Veterans Affairs had told the court. The department defended its policy of denying benefits unless the hospital was proven at fault, but Justice David H. Souter, writing for the court, said that condition does not exist in the benefits law.
Thousands of injury cases have been on hold awaiting the outcome of the dispute, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown said Monday.
``We have been holding some 8,000 veterans' benefits claims . . . and we will move expeditiously to decide those claims and award compensation,'' Brown said.
The ruling puts veterans in a better position than that of nonveterans who sue private hospitals. Generally, the law requires that a person show that a hospital was negligent or otherwise at fault for an injury.
The case marked the first time a veterans conflict had reached the Supreme Court since 1988, when Congress said Veterans Affairs decisions could be reviewed by federal judges.
For more than 60 years the VA had interpreted a 1924 law to mean that benefits could be paid only if the injury arose from negligent treatment by the VA or if an accident occurred during treatment. ILLUSTRATION: WHAT IT MEANS
The ruling puts veterans in a better position than nonveterans
who sue private hospitals. About 8,000 cases are affected and as
much as $1 billion may have to be paid out.
KEYWORDS: VETERANS SUPREME COURT RULING BENEFITS INJURIES by CNB