Tip-over furniture

Published on: April 8, 2021

Leesfield & Partners sues corporations responsible for creating safety standards that resulted in furniture tip-over fatality

After settling a claim on behalf of their client whose son was fatally injured in a furniture tip-over incident at home, Leesfield & Partners attorneys filed a lawsuit against the entities behind the safety standards that the furniture industry lives by. American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) represents approximately 230 furniture manufacturers and distributors, and over 120 suppliers to the furniture industry worldwide. American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has 30,000 members worldwide overseeing more than 12,500 product safety and technical standards. The Furniture Safety Subcommittee within ASTM oversees the furniture stability standard, F2057-19.

In 2017, Meghan DeLong retained Leesfield & Partners to file a wrongful death lawsuit following the death of her 2-year old son, Conner, in a furniture tip-over incident. In their testing, our experts discovered that the dresser in question would tip-over 100% of the time they replicated a young child climbing atop the very piece of furniture. Inversely, the defendant manufacturer argued that the dresser’s design satisfied ASTM’s voluntary standards, including tip-over prevention standards, and that their experts’ testing results showed 0% occurrence of the dresser tipping over. How could these two findings be true?

The answer is found in the ASTM standards themselves. The voluntary standard ASTM F2057-14, Standard Safety Specification Clothing Storage Units, establishes requirements for free-standing clothing storage units, (CSU) such as dressers, chests, and armoires, in the United States, and is intended to minimize the hazards associated with tipover. In practice however, the testing methods implemented by the furniture industry and approved by ASTM F2057-14, do not take into account dozens of crucial human factors that, if taken into account, render most pieces of furniture dangerous, thus defective.

Published on: April 4, 2021

Furniture tip-over incident in Pompano Beach is most painful reminder of furniture industry’s inadequate standards and unacceptable negligence

By Leesfield & Partners

In the recent months, Leesfield & Partners represented a family whose 2-year-old child lost his life in a furniture tip-over incident that occurred in the toddler’s bedroom. Despite the family’s endless love, care, and attention, the tragedy could not have been avoided. Millions of people put their trust in industries to abide by safety guidelines to prevent needless incidents, and yet every single day nearly two children will have to be hospitalized from furniture incidents – and hundreds will lose be fatally injured. It was no different in our case. The manufacturer was trusted by our clients to be a safe and adequately designed piece of furniture. That dresser was even compliant with all the industry standards in effect, but when an industry self-regulates, tragedies seem to repeat themselves.

tip-over-for-fb-300x216 Due to the relentless pursuit of justice by attorneys with the firm, a $17.5 million settlement was secured for clients. Since then, Leesfield & Partners started its own campaign with ‘Anchor it!’, but most importantly the family has pursued legislative change and began funding an awareness campaign nationally to prevent similar tragedies from impacting others. An arduous mission which one day, hopefully soon, will deliver on its promise. Unfortunately, parents do not have the luxury to wait for legislative change, and Leesfield & Partners has had to litigate countless defective product cases on behalf of grieving families who have lost their most precious life.

This week, the firm resolved a long and difficult product liability case on behalf of clients who lost three members of their family, including two small children. Several claims against several manufacturers were litigated, experts in many different fields were retained, legal strategies were developed, weighed against the facts, and ultimately proved to be correct, resulting in an overall 8-figure confidential settlement.

Published on: December 6, 2018

Protect children against furniture tipping-over. Anchor it!

By Leesfield & Partners

In the Spring of 2018, Leesfield & Partners launched a new initiative to raise awareness of the dangers of furniture tipping-over on toddlers and young children. Following the settlement of a horrific wrongful death case against a furniture manufacturer on behalf of a mother who lost her child in a tip-over tragedy, the facebook page @FurnitureTippingOver was created. The new page provides statistics, helpful information and preventative ways parents can use to make their children’s environment safer.

Launched this week, the new campaign “Protect Children – Anchor it!” reminds us all that every 17 minutes, a child is injured in a tip-over incident at home.

Help us in raising awareness by reposting and by demanding that furniture manufacturers join us in making our homes safer.