COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA


Present:  Judges Willis, Humphreys and Senior Judge Overton
Argued at Chesapeake, Virginia

7-ELEVEN AND AMERICAN PROTECTION 
 INSURANCE COMPANY
			MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY
v.	Record No. 3041-00-1	JUDGE NELSON T. OVERTON
			JUNE 5, 2001
LAURA M. SMITH


	FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION 

		Linda M. Gillen (Andrew R. Blair, on brief), 
for appellants.

		No brief or argument for appellee.



	7-Eleven and its insurer (hereinafter referred to as 
"employer") contend that the Workers' Compensation Commission 
erred in finding that Laura M. Smith's (claimant) May 6, 1996 
change-in-condition application was properly filed and not 
abandoned by claimant.  Because we find that the full 
commission's November 20, 2000 opinion did not constitute a 
final award appealable to this Court, we dismiss employer's 
appeal.  
	Code  65.2-706 provides that "[n]o 
appeal shall be taken from the decision of 
one Commissioner until a review of the case 
has been had before the full Commission, as 
provided in Code  65.2-705, and an award 
entered by it.  Appeals shall lie from such 
award to the Court of Appeals . . . ."  
"[T]he words 'such award' . . . [contained 
in  65.2-706] mean final award, that is, a 
decision of the . . . Commission granting or 
denying, or changing or refusing to change, 
some benefit payable or allowable under the 
. . . Act and leaving nothing to be done 
except to superintend ministerially the 
execution of the award."
Uninsured Employer's Fund v. Harper, 26 Va. App. 522, 527, 495 
S.E.2d 540, 543 (1998) (citation omitted).      
	The full commission's November 20, 2000 opinion affirmed 
the deputy commissioner's determination that claimant's May 6, 
1996 change-in-condition application was properly filed and not 
abandoned.  The full commission then referred this matter back 
to the hearing docket for a determination of the substantive 
issues surrounding claimant's change-in-condition applications. 
Thus, the commission's November 20, 2000 opinion did not dispose 
of the merits of the claims, leaving nothing further to be done.  
Accordingly, it did not constitute a final award appealable to 
this Court.  See id.
	For these reasons, we dismiss employer's appeal.
										Dismissed. 
* Pursuant to Code  17.1-413, this opinion is not 
designated for publication.