Ward

Charles and Glenna Jo Canum Ward appeal a summary judgment for Westinghouse Canada, Inc. and Westinghouse Electric Corporation (Westinghouse) in the Wards’ diversity action for personal injury and loss of consortium. The court concluded that the Wards’ claim was barred by California’s one-year statute of limitations for personal injury actions, Cal.Civ.Proe.Code § 340(3) (Deering 1991). Ward v. Westinghouse Canada, Inc., 807 F.Supp. 91 (N.D.Cal.1992). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and reverse and remand.

I.

From February 1979 to June 1990, Charles Ward worked for Delta Airlines as a reservations agent, spending approximately seven hours a day entering reservations into a computer terminal. He alleges that because of a defect in defendants’ computer keyboard and computer system, he developed crippling tendonitis, a type of cumulative trauma disorder.

In his deposition, Ward testified that he first noticed a slight pain in his wrists as early as 1984. He testified that the pain and numbness in his wrists and arms gradually increased in 1988 and 1989. According to Ward, he initially attributed the pain to the many other things that he did with his wrists and arms…