Ikea Settles Fatal Dresser Tip-Over Case for $46M
Feldman Shepherd attorney Alan Feldman said the agreement marks the largest settlement in the country in a wrongful death case involving a toddler.
January 06, 2020 at 05:53 PM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The Legal Intelligencer
Swedish furniture retailer Ikea has agreed to pay $46 million to settle claims stemming from a fatal dresser tip-over incident involving a toddler.
Attorneys from Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig who represented the family of the 2-year-old killed in the incident announced Monday that they had secured the multimillion-dollar settlement in the case, Dudek v. Ikea. The lawsuit had been filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in 2017, and the parties agreed to the accord during mediation before Florida-based mediator Rodney Max of Upchurch Watson White & Max.
During a press conference announcing the settlement, Feldman Shepherd attorney Alan Feldman, who represented the plaintiffs along with attorneys Daniel Mann and Edward Goldis, said the agreement marks the largest settlement in the country in a wrongful death case involving a toddler.
The lawsuit stemmed from a MALM dresser tipping over onto 2-year-old Jozef Dudek after his father Craig Dudek had put him down for a daytime nap in Mary 2017. According to Feldman, the settlement also stemmed from the only known death to occur from a tip-over of a MALM dresser since Ikea agreed to recall the dressers in 2016.
Feldman's firm previously represented three other families who lost children due to MALM dressers, and his firm led those families to recover a $50 million settlement from Ikea in late 2016.
During the press conference Monday, the plaintiffs' attorneys said the fact that Dudek's death occurred after the 2016 recall likely helped strengthen the liability claims against the furniture maker.
"Ikea had learned about the multiple deaths from its products. They had already admitted they were unstable and needed to be gotten out of American homes," Feldman said. "This case occurred when Ikea had significantly more information about the dangers of their products and how they were being used, and when they weren't doing enough to alert consumers to the real dangers of having these products in a home with small children."
Keith Heinold of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin represented Ikea.
In a statement to the press, Ikea spokeswoman Haley Mayer said the company offered its "deepest condolences."
"While no settlement can alter the tragic events that brought us here, for the sake of the family and all involved, we're grateful that this litigation has reached a resolution," the statement said. "We remain committed to working proactively and collaboratively to address this very important home safety issue."
According to the complaint, Craig and Joleen Dudek bought the dresser from Ikea in 2008 at a store in Costa Mesa, California. On May 24, 2017, after putting Jozef to bed for a nap, Craig Dudek entered Jozef's bedroom and found that the MALM dresser had fallen on top of the toddler and pinned him between drawers. After lifting the drawers, Craig Dudek administered CPR, and then ran outside with his son in his arms shouting for help. Although emergency services arrived and began performing CPR and the child was transferred to West Anaheim Medical Center, the measures were unsuccessful and Jozef died that day.
During the press conference Monday, Feldman said the company had opted out of complying with voluntary safety standards for standalone furniture, since the company did not intend for the dresser to be used as a standalone piece, but rather it was supposed to be affixed to a wall. However, according to Feldman, the company failed to provide the equipment needed to fix the dresser to a wall, and did not warn about the dangers to small children if the dresser was used as a standalone.
Although Ikea has redesigned the MALM dresser in the wake of the 2016 recall, the plaintiffs' lawyers also said they did not think the company has gone far enough in notifying customers who purchased the older version of the dresser about the recall. Specifically, Mann noted that neither the Dudeks, nor Feldman Shepherd, which had purchased a MALM dresser prior to the recall, received an email notifying them the dressers had been recalled. He also said there had been a separate claim in Dudek alleging the recall had not been conducted effectively.
"Once a manufacturer admits that a product is dangerous and defective and shouldn't be in children's bedrooms, that they should do everything that they can to inform consumers and purchasers that the product was defective," Mann said.
The lawyers noted that the recent settlement accord also includes an agreement from Ikea to increase efforts to raise awareness about the recall.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All'A Mockery' of Deposition Rules: Walgreens Wins Sanctions Dispute Over Corporate Witness Allegedly Unfamiliar With Company
Dog Gone It, Target: Provider of Retailer's Mascot Dog Sues Over Contract Cancellation
4 minute readAm Law 200 Firm to Defend PUMA in Latest Quarrel Over Patented Shoe Technology
Apple Asks Judge to 'Follow the Majority Practice' in Dismissing Patent Dispute Over Night Vision Technology
Law Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250