Rodriguez v. Evers

2020-UPTHIS OPINION HAS NO PRECEDENTIAL VALUE. IT SHOULD
NOT BE CITED OR RELIED ON AS PRECEDENT IN ANY
PROCEEDING EXCEPT AS PROVIDED BY RULE 268(d)(2), SCACR.

THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
In The Court of Appeals

Veronica Rodriguez, Employee, Respondent,

v.

Peggy Evers, Employer, and NorGuard Insurance
Company, Carrier, Appellants.

Appellate Case No. 2018-001111

Appeal From The Workers' Compensation Commission

Unpublished Opinion No. 2020-UP-133
Submitted March 1, 2020 – Filed May 6, 2020
Withdrawn, Substituted, and Refiled June 6, 2020

APPEAL DISMISSED

George D. Gallagher, of Speed, Seta, Martin, Trivett &
Stubley, LLC, and Kevin Desmond Maroney, of Rogers
Lewis Jackson Mann & Quinn, LLC, both of Columbia,
for Appellants.

Don C. Gibson, of Gibson Law Firm, LLC, of N.
Charleston, for Respondent.

PER CURIAM: Peggy Evers and NorGuard Insurance Company (Appellants)
appeal the Worker's Compensation Commission's (the Commission's) dismissal of
their appeal from the single commissioner and the denial of their motion to
reinstate. Appellants appealed a single commissioner's order finding that the
claimant was a statutory employee and awarding various temporary benefits. The
Commission administratively dismissed the appeal after Appellants did not file
their appellate brief. Appellants petitioned to reinstate, which the Commission
denied. This appeal followed.

The Commission has not reached a final decision on the merits of the claimant's
contested case. Thus, the underlying orders are not immediately appealable to this
court. Therefore, this appeal is dismissed. See S.C. Code Ann. § 1-23-380 (Supp.
2019) ("A party who has exhausted all administrative remedies available within the
agency and who is aggrieved by a final decision in a contested case is entitled to
judicial review . . . ."); Bone v. U.S. Food Service, 404 S.C. 67, 74-75, 744 S.E.2d
552, 556-57 (2013) (defining a final judgment as an order which disposes of the
entire case and explaining issues like compensability may be raised on appeal of
the final award).

APPEAL DISMISSED.1

LOCKEMY, C.J., and GEATHERS and HEWITT, JJ., concur.

1
We decide this case without oral argument pursuant to Rule 215, SCACR.