Harper v. Cal-Maine Foods, Inc.

DICKINSON, Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. We granted certiorari to address the question of whether an unappealed award of the Workers’ Compensation Commission becomes final when rendered, or at the expiration of the thirty-day appeal period. If the former, the statute of limitations on petitioner’s bad-faith lawsuit expired and, if the latter, it did not.

BACKGROUND FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

¶ 2. We borrow and here restate the Court of Appeals’ excellent recitation of this case’s factual background:

At the time of his death, Ricky Harper was employed by Cal-Maine as a supervisor at a chicken-breeding…