The International Monetary Fund's oldest and one of its most respected economists, 94-year-old Jacques Polak, is suing the IMF for $6-million after he fell down a flight of stairs at an IMF conference held last year in his honour. Mr. Polak is claiming damages from the IMF to cover medical costs and home care he and his wife have needed since the fall in November at the eighth annual Jacques Polak Research Conference. Mr. Polak fell as he made his way to his seat in the front row of a packed IMF auditorium for a keynote address by Stanley Fischer, the IMF's former No. 2 official and now Israel's central bank governor. Mr. Polak played a major role in the development of a global monetary system since the IMF's inception in 1944. While he retired from the IMF in 1979, Mr. Polak is a familiar figure at the fund, where he kept an office and worked four days a week.