$50 Million Settlement for Three Families After IKEA MALM Dressers Fatally Crush Toddlers

Between 2014 and 2016, three toddlers died in separate, unrelated incidents when IKEA MALM dressers tipped forward and pinned them beneath the furniture. Curren Collas was 2 years old. Camden Ellis was 2 years old. Ted McGee was 22 months old. Each child was killed in his own home, and in each incident the dresser was unsecured to the wall.

Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig, based in Philadelphia, represented all three families. The cases focused on a structural defect at the heart of the MALM line: the dresser was disproportionately heavy at the front and top, so that a child's weight on an open drawer or a moderate pull on the unit could bring the entire piece forward. Counsel argued that IKEA had designed and sold furniture it knew to be unstable in the presence of young children and had failed to provide adequate wall-anchoring hardware at the point of sale.

IKEA's own internal records showed that the company had received injury and death reports linked to MALM tipping incidents for years before any corrective action. In June 2016, under pressure from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and amid the pending litigation, IKEA recalled approximately 8 million MALM chests and dressers plus roughly 21 million additional similar models, a combined total of about 29 million units sold in the United States since 1985. The company offered refunds or free wall-anchoring kits.

The three cases settled in December 2016 through private mediation. IKEA agreed to pay $50 million, split among the three families. The settlement was announced on December 22, 2016. At the time, a court filing noted the resolution remained subject to U.S. court approval.

The outcome did not end IKEA's legal exposure to MALM-related claims. A separate family, the Dudeks, filed suit after their 2-year-old son was killed by a MALM dresser in 2017, the year after the recall. That case settled in 2020 for $46 million. Together, the two rounds of litigation produced approximately $96 million in settlements tied to the same product line.