$46 Million Settlement for Family of Toddler Killed by IKEA MALM Dresser
Won by Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig.
Alan Feldman of Feldman Shepherd secured a $46 million settlement against IKEA on behalf of the family of a 2-year-old boy crushed by a MALM dresser in California, reported at the time as the largest child wrongful-death settlement in U.S. history.
What happened
In 2017, Jozef Dudek, a 2-year-old in California, died after a 70-pound, three-drawer IKEA MALM dresser toppled onto him while he napped, crushing his neck and cutting off his airway. His parents, Joleen and Craig Dudek, had already secured other furniture in the home. The MALM dresser they had purchased in 2008 was not anchored to the wall.
The Dudeks filed suit against IKEA in 2018, represented by Alan Feldman of Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig. The litigation centered on a core design defect: the MALM line lacked counterbalancing weight at the back and bottom of the unit, making the dresser top-heavy and front-heavy. Attorneys demonstrated that the design was 'unstable by design and did not meet safety standards' and that even a young child's weight on an open drawer could cause the piece to tip.
IKEA had been aware of the hazard for years. Consumer advocates had documented the deaths of eight to ten children linked to tipping MALM dressers before the company issued a recall in 2016 covering roughly 29 million chests and dressers sold since 1985, offering refunds or free wall-anchoring hardware. Jozef's death occurred the following year.
In January 2020, IKEA agreed to pay $46 million to resolve the case through private mediation. Attorneys described the figure as the largest child wrongful-death settlement in U.S. history. The Dudek family pledged to donate $1 million of the recovery to consumer advocacy organizations working on furniture tip-over safety.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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