Injury Awards Against DEC Overturned

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out $5.6 million in awards against Digital Equipment Corp. from the first case that won money for computer-keyboard users with typing injuries.

Judge Jack Weinstein of U.S. District Court in New York granted the computer company a retrial after it presented new evidence that challenged a $5.3-million jury award on Dec. 4 to a New York secretary. He dismissed a second, $302,000 award from the same trial because he said the claim was filed too late. The judge let stand a third, $274,000 keyboard-injury award.

The decision bolsters the computer industry’s near-perfect record in suits over injuries allegedly caused by typing. But it’s unlikely to stop people from filing such suits.

“The fact remains a plaintiff’s attorney was able to bring back a big verdict against a computer manufacturer, whether or not it was justified,” said John Polonsky, who defends companies in product-liability cases.

Also, the survival of one of the damage awards is telling, said Carl Tuerk, a plaintiff’s attorney. “That the judge let one verdict stand says there are merits to these claims,” he said.

So far, the computer industry has won 25 of 26 keyboard-injury cases that made it to trial or were decided on evidence.

Maynard, Mass.-based Digital had asked Weinstein to throw out the $5.3-million award to Patricia Geressy, a secretary at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, because evidence was left out of the trial.

Digital said Geressy’s attorneys should have included a workers’ compensation report that said a previous neck injury was the cause of Geressy’s wrist injuries, not repeated use of a Digital keyboard.

Weinstein agreed, saying the report probably would have influenced the jury’s decision.

The judge had opened the door for Digital to reduce or void all three awards in January when he granted the company’s request for a hearing. The two other awards were $302,000 to Jill M. Jackson, a legal secretary at the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, and $274,000 to Jeanette Rotolo, a clerk at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

“We’re disappointed,” said Stephanie Lannigan Bross, an attorney for the plaintiffs. She said the new evidence Digital introduced on Geressy wasn’t material to the case.

Bross said she’s pleased the judge upheld the $274,000 award. Tuesday’s ruling “doesn’t exonerate Digital from culpability in these keyboard cases,” Bross said.

Digital spokesman Dan Kaferle said the company is pleased with the rulings on the two biggest damage awards. Digital plans to appeal the decision upholding the $274,000 award, he said.

More than 1,000 lawsuits are pending against computer makers for repetitive-stress injuries, many of them against International Business Machines Corp. In repetitive-stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, pressure builds on the nerves and tendons that pass through the wrist, causing numbness, tingling and pain.

Before the Dec. 4 verdict, the computer industry had lost only one lawsuit, and it didn’t involve a keyboard.