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
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
© 2025 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 AllJCPenney Customer's Slip-and-Fall From Bodily Substance Suit Best Left for a Jury to Decide, Judge Rules
4 minute readFederal Judge Dismisses Digital Privacy Suit Against E-Commerce Company
4 minute readLaw Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Has New York Sentence Pardoned by Trump
- 2Settlement Allows Spouses of U.S. Citizens to Reopen Removal Proceedings
- 3CFPB Resolves Flurry of Enforcement Actions in Biden's Final Week
- 4Judge Orders SoCal Edison to Preserve Evidence Relating to Los Angeles Wildfires
- 5Legal Community Luminaries Honored at New York State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
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