
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 8, 1995                   TAG: 9503080112
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HASTINGS, MINN.                                LENGTH: Short

JUDGE HEARS CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN IBM REPETITIVE-STRESS TRIAL

IBM warned its employees about possible repetitive-stress injuries from computer keyboards and should have told people like Nancy Urbanski, whose debilitation cost her a job, her lawyer said Tuesday.

``Internally, they were warning their own people. Internally, they recognized this as a growing problem. In the meantime, Nancy Urbanski is getting crippled. It's not right,'' Steven Phillips said during closing arguments in Urbanski's lawsuit.

Urbanski claims IBM failed to warn her that keyboard use could lead to the injuries that caused her to lose her secretarial job at Eagan High School.

IBM's lawyer argued that companies should not have to put warning labels on everything, and that any tool used long enough will cause fatigue or worse.

The case, which is to go to the jury today, is the first of its kind against IBM to go to trial. Urbanski also sued Apple Computer Inc. and the case was part of the same trial until Apple settled last week, citing errors by its attorneys.

- Associated Press

by CNB