Digital Equipment Corp emerged as the victor yesterday in the multimillion dollar keyboard injury suit it’s been fighting in the New York courts over the past few weeks (CI No 3,429). In the Gonzalez v Digital Equipment liability suit, the jury found in favor of Digital, now a part of Compaq Computer Corp, and against nine plaintiffs who claimed their carpal tunnel syndrome injuries were caused by using Digital keyboards. The case was the consolidation of a suit first taken out in December 1996, when a jury awarded damages to three office workers claiming to suffer from repetitive strain injury. DEC immediately appealed. But the case is not over yet, with a further appeal, Rotolo v Digital, still outstanding. DEC’s trial council commented: Judges and juries have rejected keyboard product liability claims 30 out of 31 times. It would be unfortunate if the courts were forced to spend more valuable time hearing more cases that obviously have no merit.
