Terry Louis Carter v. Veterans Administration Paul Issing, Regional Director and T.A. Verrill, Adjudication Officer

Carter, a veteran of the armed services, was a student receiving benefits from the Veterans Administration (hereinafter V.A.). On April 20,1983 the V.A. notified him that “any future withdrawals from school will require not only acceptable mitigating circumstances, but corroborative evidence such as statements from doctors, employers, and school officials.” On May 1, 1983 Carter replied by letter and requested, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (hereinafter FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552 (a)(4)(B), that he be sent copies of all rules and regulations in support of the request for corroborative evidence. The V.A. responded on May 24 informing Carter that Title 38 of the United States Code was the source of all V.A. regulations and that he could obtain a copy at any library. This inadequate response was followed by appel-lee’s July 20th letter advising Carter that the regulations could be found in 38 C.F.R. § 21.4136 (k) which could be found at any library.

On July 29 Carter wrote the V.A. demanding that it send him actual copies of the rules governing the corroborative evidence requirement. Appellee ignored this request. Carter then filed this lawsuit. Subsequently, the V.A.…