OTHER NEWS - Aug. 5, 1996

Appellate Court Throws Out RSI Suits: A New York appellate judge ruled that suits by 108 plaintiffs against Apple Computer Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and other companies claiming the companies’ equipment caused carpal-tunnel syndrome were filed too late--more than three years after the plaintiffs first used the equipment. In carpal-tunnel syndrome, pressure builds up on the nerves and tendons in the wrist. The ruling is likely to make it harder to win similar suits, lawyers say. The court ruling said that it is the “first date of exposure from which the statute of limitations is to be measured,” even if the keyboard users’ injuries took longer than that to develop. An attorney for IBM cheered the ruling. Lawyers for the plaintiffs weren’t immediately available for comment.