38 U.S.C. § 108
Section 108 · Seven-year absence presumption of death
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 10 court decisions — leading case Acosta v. United States (1963)
Most recently applied in Burden v. Shinseki (July 2013)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) No State law providing for presumption of death shall be applicable to claims for benefits under laws administered by the Secretary.
(b) If evidence satisfactory to the Secretary is submitted establishing the continued and unexplained absence of any individual from that individual's home and family for seven or more years, and establishing that after diligent search no evidence of that individual's existence after the date of disappearance has been found or received, the death of such individual as of the date of the expiration of such period shall be considered as sufficiently proved.
(c) Except in a suit brought pursuant to section 1984 of this title, the finding of death made by the Secretary shall be final and conclusive.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1991—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–83, §4(a)(1), substituted “administered by the Secretary” for “administered by the Veterans’ Administration”.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 102–83, §4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator”.
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 102–83, §5(c)(1), substituted “1984” for “784”.
Pub. L. 102–83, §4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator”.
1986—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 99–576 substituted “that individual's” for “his” in two places.