Mattel Inc. and its Fisher-Price unit have settled lawsuits alleging their recalled Rock ‘n Play baby sleeper was so defectively designed that it led to the deaths of infants.
The agreement, disclosed in a Delaware court filing last week, resolves lawsuits over six death cases and four allegations the faulty design of the Rock ‘n Play product led to babies suffering flattened heads when they rolled against the product’s side, said Michael Trunk, an attorney representing victims who settled their cases. He declined to provide financial terms.
Among the cases settled was a suit filed by Ameena Brown over the death of her son, identified in court filings only as AB. Jury selection in her case was slated to start Thursday in Delaware. There are at least four other such cases pending in Delaware Superior Court.
A representative of Mattel declined to comment. Mattel acquired Fisher Price in 1993 in a deal valued at $1 billion.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who teaches about product-liability law, called the settlement a positive step, but said “the company should have done more to ensure that this product was safe for infant use before it put it on the market in the first place.”
Product Recall
Mattel started selling the Rock ‘n Play Sleeper in October 2009. Over the next 14 years, the product was tied to around 100 deaths, according to court filings in Delaware. Mattel and Fisher-Price pulled it off the market in 2019 and offered refunds for 4.7 million sleepers. It reiterated its recall in 2023.
Earlier this year, Mattel agreed to settle investors’ claims that it hid the sleeper’s risks in a $17 million deal. As part of the accord, the company agreed to make changes to the way directors and executives handle safety issues. That followed Mattel’s agreement to pay $19 million to Rock ‘n Play purchasers as part of a class-action settlement in federal court in Buffalo, New York. A judge approved that deal in March.
In Brown’s case, her lawyers alleged in their complaint that Rock ‘n Play’s inclined design forced “children to tilt their heads to one side, thereby increasing the risk of neck and head injuries, asphyxiation, suffocation, and death.”
