Woman Is Awarded $3.2 Million in Ikea Accident

A Fairfax County jury has awarded $3.2 million to a woman who was shopping at the Ikea store in Potomac Mills when more than 350 pounds of countertops suddenly fell on her, crushing her pelvis and effectively ending her avid pursuits of hiking and biking around the world.

Xiaolei Zeng, 36, of Arlington said she had gone to Ikea looking for a table on July 28, 2006, and did not find one she liked. As she was nearing the exit, she stopped near the "As Is" section of leftover or bargain items but did not touch any of them. Zeng said a stack of four particle-board countertops and one inside door collapsed on her. The eight-foot-high countertops each weighed 56 to 105 pounds, according to court records, and one had a granite top.

Zeng's doctors testified in Fairfax County Circuit Court last week that she suffered four fractures to her pelvis. Her lawyer, Edward Weiner, said Zeng had a metal plate placed in her pelvis that was replaced with another device after pain in her lower back continued.

Weiner said that Zeng, who used to travel to China and Europe and across the United States for hiking, climbing and biking, now can walk only about three blocks before the pain becomes too much. Even extended sitting is painful, he said.

"I still try to travel," Zeng said yesterday, "but I've had to reduce the amount of travel because it's pretty unbearable."

Zeng sued Ikea in Fairfax, where she formerly lived, in April 2008. Weiner said the countertops were stacked upright on their short sides rather than their long eight-foot sides and were restrained only by an elastic bungee cord. He said no one could say how much weight a bungee cord could hold.

Ikea's lawyer, Joseph F. Giordano, did not return a call yesterday seeking comment.

A jury of five women and two men heard three days of testimony from witnesses, including doctors who said Zeng is likely to have back and pelvic pain for the rest of her life. Zeng said she is not going to stop trying to exercise and reduce the pain. "I've basically been an athlete all my life," she said.

The jury needed only about three hours to rule for Zeng last Thursday. Weiner said that Zeng had about $125,000 in medical costs and lost wages and that the remaining $3 million-plus was for past and future pain and suffering.

Zeng said that she thinks the jury verdict "made a statement" about the need for consumer safety in stores and that "people need to know to be careful" around large merchandise.