STOCKHOLM (dpa-AFX) - Swedish furniture giant Ikea agreed to pay $46 million to the family of Jozef Dudek, a toddler in California, who was killed by one of its already recalled dressers. The settlement is said to be the largest in US history related to a child wrongful death.
Dudek, who was two years old, had died in May 2017 after an unsecured Ikea three-drawer Malm dresser fell on top of him. Ikea had already recalled the dresser and other styles in 2016 following reports of deaths of many toddlers and injuries to kids. The Dudek family, which bought the dresser in 2008, said they never received any notice or information regarding the recall.
In the lawsuit filed in 2018, the family accused that the company, despite knowing the deaths and injuries, failed to warn consumers that the dresser could be dangerous, and failed to take adequate measures to improve their safety and stability.
Feldman Shepherd, the legal firm that represents the Dudek family, noted that millions of the recalled unsafe older model dressers may still be in homes around the country.
As part of the settlement, Ikea has agreed to broaden its outreach to consumers about the Malm dresser recall. The company will also meet with representatives of Parents Against Tip-Overs, which works for safer furniture designs and stringent testing standards.
Further, Dudek's parents, Joleen and Craig Dudek, reportedly will donate $1 million from the settlement money to organizations that advocate to protect kids from unsafe products.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there have been eight reports of child tip-over related deaths with Ikea's recalled chests and dressers. The company received nearly 300 reports of tip-over incidents involving chests and dressers that caused 144 injuries to children. Since 2016, Ikea has recalled around 17.3 million units in the United States.
Ikea in 2016 had paid $50 million in total to the families of three other children who had been killed by its dressers.
The company has now redesigned its dressers, and urges customers to secure them to the walls.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
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