Supreme Court of the United States

“ Arellano contends that his claim, filed 30 years after discharge, should relate back to the date of discharge because his disability prevented him from filing earlier than he did. But §5110 (b) (4) , which applies to disability pensions rather than disability compensation, expressly accounts for this very concern: It makes pension benefits retroactive to the date of permanent and total disability if the disability prevented the veteran from applying for an award at the time of onset. §§5110 (b) (4) (A) , (B) . The possibility that disability could cause delay was therefore on Congress’s radar ”

“ According to Arellano, Congress’s silence in §5110 (b) (1) merely shows that it wanted those traditional principles to apply at full strength. Ibid.; Reply Brief 19–20.
We disagree. Section 5110 (b) (4) does not help Arellano; for the reasons we have already explained, it illustrates why equitably tolling §5110 (b) (1) is incongruent with the statutory scheme. Young is inapposite. There, we concluded that an “express tolling provision” for a time limit in a bankruptcy statute supported equitable tolling of a different time limit in the same statute. ”

“ That many of the specific exceptions reflect equitable considerations heightens the structural inference. Several, including §5110 (b) (1) , apply when the event triggering the entitlement to benefits is disability or death—both circumstances in which prompt filing could be challenging for a veteran or her survivors. See §§5110 (b) (1) , (b) (3) , (b) (4) (A) , (d) ; cf. Lozano, 572 U. S., at 10 (noting that equitable tolling may be appropriate when a person diligently pursues her rights but an “extraordinary circumstance prevents [her] from bringing a timely action”) . ”

“ See §5110 (h) (permitting retroactive benefits when actual income would increase a pension that had been awarded based on anticipated income) ; §5110 (i) (permitting retroactive benefits when “any disallowed claim is readjudicated and thereafter allowed on the basis of new and relevant evidence resulting from the correction of” certain military records) . ”