Military Shorts Veterans on CRSC Benefits, Class Action Claims

A retired Marine says the military has been short-changing veterans on retroactive Combat-Related Special Compensation benefits.

Plaintiff Simon Soto, who served two tours in Iraq in the Marine Corps, claims branches of the U.S. military have been misapplying a limitations statute to improperly limit veterans’ entitlement to CRSC benefits.

Soto argues that limitations statute does not actually apply to CRSC. As a result, he claims, the service branches have been erroneously limiting the number of retroactive CRSC payments that qualifying veterans can receive.

Congress created CRSC in 2002 as a benefit for certain military retirees who have combat-related disabilities. Among other requirements, entitlement to CRSC requires a veteran to be granted compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs for a service-connected disability that is at least 10 percent disabling.

According to this class action, the service branches incorrectly limit retroactive CRSC payments to six years from the more recent date of their grant of VA compensation or the date they become entitled to retired pay. Claims filed after that six-year window will be limited to six years of any retroactive entitlement, the branches say.

But the six-year limitations statute cited by the service branches doesn’t apply to retroactive CRSC, the class action lawsuit argues. Soto says the limitations period applies only to a few specific types of claims, and CRSC does not fall within any of those categories.

Therefore, Soto argues, applicants should be able to qualify for retroactive CRSC entitlement according to the CRSC Program Guidance published in 2004 and 2008. For medical retirees like Soto, that guidance provides an effective date as early as Jan. 1, 2008.

Soto served in the Marine Corps from August 2000 to April 2006. During his first of two deployments to Iraq, he served in Mortuary Affairs, where his job was to “search for, recover, and process the remains” of war casualties. His experience in Iraq left him with severely disabling post-traumatic stress disorder.

Soto received a medical retirement from the Marine Corps on April 28, 2006. He has been continuously entitled to military retirement pay since that date. He is also entitled to VA compensation for his PTSD, with an original effective date of April 29, 2006. His PTSD is currently rated 100 percent disabling.

Since he is entitled to both military retired pay and VA compensation, Soto meets the preliminary criteria for CRSC payment. He applied for CRSC in June 2016. The Navy awarded him CRSC with an effective date of July 2010. Soto argues he should have received an effective date of Jan. 2008, since he met all the entitlement criteria on that date.

The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) filed this class action lawsuit on behalf of Soto. The NVLSP is a non-profit organization dedicated to making sure both veterans and those actively serving in the military get the “federal benefits they have earned through their service to our country.”

Soto proposes to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all former service members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard who applied for and were granted CRSC payment from a later effective date than they would have gotten were it not for the retroactive payment cap, and whose resulting claims are less than $10,000.

He is asking the court for an award of damages, court costs and attorneys’ fees.

Representing the plaintiff and proposed Class are attorneys Tracy LeRoy, Gerard D. Kelly, Emily M. Wexler and Jeff Carroll of Sidley Austin LLP, assisted by Barton F. Stichman and Thomas A. Moore of National Veterans Legal Services Program.

The Military Retroactive CRSC Payment Class Action Lawsuit is Simon A. Soto v. The United States of America, Case No. 1:17-cv-00051, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.