Ikea to pay $46M in death of toddler

Ikea agreed to pay $46 million to the parents of a California toddler who died when one of the company’s dressers tipped onto him in 2017, the family’s lawyers said Monday.

The attorneys for the parents of 2year-old Jozef Dudek said they believe it is the largest settlement in U.S. hisotry resulting from the wrongful death of a child. The settlement is nearly three times the amount Ikea paid in 2016 to settle similar lawsuits filed by the parents of other children killed in tip-overs of its dressers, when $50 million was split among three families.

“We miss him so much,” said Joleen Dudek, Jozef’s mother. “He would be turning 5 this year in April. We never thought that a 2-year-old could cause a short 30-inch dresser to tip over and suffocate him. It was only later that we learned that this dresser was designed unstable and did not met safety standards and that this had happened to other little boys.”

Ikea confirmed the settlement amount Monday.

Ikea dressers have been linked to the deaths of at least nine children and dozens of injuries. Often the incidents happen when a child pulls on the drawers of a unit, sending it crashing forward.

The company recalled 17.3 million dressers in 2016, including the 3-drawer Malm that tipped onto Jozef. Millions of the recalled dressers remain in use, and the company as part of the settlement agreed to broaden its outreach to consumers about the recall, the lawyers said.

Jozef was the first child who died after the recall was announced. Craig and Joleen Dudek, in a lawsuit filed in 2018 in Pennsylvania, where Ikea’s U.S. headquarters is located, said they were unaware of the recall and faulted the company for not notifying them. The parents said Ikea had their contact information through its customer loyalty program.

Safety advocates say there are likely still millions of unstable, unsecured Ikea dressers still in use.