ROBERTS, J., for the Court:
¶ 1. This appeal and cross-appeal stem from a 2009 work-related injury involving Land O' Lakes Inc. and its employee James Harper. Because we find that there has not been a final judgment, we dismiss the present appeal and cross-appeal as interlocutory.
¶ 2. On March 26, 2009, Harper sustained injuries to his feet when they became caught in a fertilizer conveyor belt. Harper filed a petition to controvert, claiming injuries to his legs and lower back as a result of the work-related accident. His employer, Land O' Lakes Inc., accepted Harper's claims of lower-extremity injuries; however, it denied compensability for his lower-back injury.
¶ 3. Following a hearing on March 7, 2013, the administrative judge (AJ) found a fifty percent industrial loss to both of Harper's lower extremities, and the AJ ordered Harper to undergo an independent medical examination (IME) to assess Harper's lower-back claim. Land O' Lakes appealed the AJ's findings to the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission (Commission). The Commission affirmed the AJ's award of permanent partial disability benefits for Harper's lower extremities; however, it found a four percent impairment per foot/leg, as opposed
¶ 4. Harper appeals the Commission's finding "that Harper's industrial loss of use of his feet did not exceed [four percent.]" Harper claims that the Commission did not consider all the evidence in making its decision, and that the AJ's decision that he suffered a fifty percent occupation disability to each leg was correct, because the decision was based on all the evidence presented.
¶ 5. Land O' Lakes cross-appeals, and the crux of its argument is that it was improper for the AJ and Commission to order Harper to undergo an IME after the hearing on the merits was completed, and such order was a violation of Land O' Lakes' due-process rights. Land O' Lakes cites to Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission Procedural Rule 7, which provides, in part:
Land O' Lakes submits that the decision to order an IME after the hearing on the merits was completed is in contravention of the Commission's own procedures. And permitting it to stand would equate to allowing additional evidence on the compensability of Harper's claimed lower-back injury to be introduced after the hearing on the merits. According to Land O'Lakes, "[Procedural Rule 7] does not allow for the AJ or Commission to hold a matter in abeyance or order an additional investigation into the compensability of an alleged injury after a hearing on the merits has been held." And that "[t]his, essentially, is just re-opening the discovery period" with no explanation as to whether Land O' Lakes would be able to have its medical expert review the IME results or "how a second hearing on the merits would operate as far as cross-examination or additional proof from either [party]."
¶ 6. Land O' Lakes also submits that Mississippi Code Annotated section 71-3-15(2) (Supp.2014) was erroneously applied by the AJ and the Commission. Section 71-3-15(2) provides:
In its brief, Land O' Lakes does not dispute that the Commission has the authority to order an IME, but it submits that the authority is limited, "for the purpose of assessing the degree of disability, whether permanent or temporary[,]" and such order would not be appropriate until a decision that the injury is compensable has been made. As we read the record, neither the Commission nor the AJ has determined the compensability of Harper's lower-back claim, i.e., whether it was a work-related injury.
¶ 8.
LEE, C.J., IRVING AND GRIFFIS, P.JJ., BARNES, ISHEE, CARLTON, MAXWELL, FAIR AND JAMES, JJ., CONCUR.