Bestway Steel Pro Pool Lawsuit: Strap Defect, Recall, and Verdict

The Bestway Steel Pro pool lawsuits accuse Bestway (USA) Inc. of selling above-ground pools with a compression strap on the outside of the pool wall that toddlers used as a foothold to climb in and drown. At least nine children between 22 months and three years old died this way between 2007 and 2022, and in July 2025 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall covering roughly five million pools. A Missouri jury has already returned a $25 million verdict against Bestway, and a consolidated consumer class action is now pending in federal court in Illinois.¹²

The Strap Defect at the Center of the Cases

Bestway’s above-ground pools that measure 48 inches or taller use a compression strap that wraps around the outside of the vertical support legs to hold the pool’s shape. Because the strap runs over the exterior of the legs, it forms a step-like ridge on the outside of the pool wall. Children as young as 22 months were able to plant a foot on the strap and pull themselves over the rim, even after the removable access ladder had been taken away.¹

The recall notice draws a specific distinction: straps routed behind the support legs do not create a foothold and were not recalled. Plaintiffs point to that distinction as evidence that a safer design existed all along.¹

The Recall and the Nine Drowning Deaths

On July 21, 2025, the CPSC announced a voluntary recall of about five million above-ground pools sold in the United States since 2002, plus roughly 266,000 sold in Canada. The Bestway-branded models covered are the Power Steel, Steel Pro, and Coleman Power Steel lines sold from 2008 through 2024. Pools made by Intex Recreation Corp. and Polygroup North America Inc. were part of the same recall.¹³

The nine reported drownings occurred in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Missouri over a fifteen-year span. The CPSC also documented three non-fatal incidents in 2011 and 2012 in which children used the straps to climb into pools.¹⁴

The recall remedy from all three manufacturers is a free repair kit. The kit contains a rope that fastens to the support legs at ground level and wraps around the pool to keep its shape; the owner then cuts off and discards the original compression strap. To install the kit, the pool has to be drained first.¹⁵

The $25 Million Missouri Verdict

The most consequential case so far was brought by Annaleah and Kyle Justice, whose two-year-old daughter Ellieanna drowned on August 3, 2019, in Warren County, Missouri. The family had bought a Bestway Power Steel pool from a Rural King store in Wentzville less than a month before. According to the complaint, Ellieanna used the pool’s exterior nylon strap as a foothold to climb into the water after the ladder had been removed.²

The case was filed in January 2022 in the Eastern District of Missouri (Case No. 4:22-cv-00050-SRC). The Justices brought five counts against Bestway: strict-liability design defect, strict-liability failure to warn, negligence, breach of express warranty, and breach of implied warranty. In October 2024, the court granted Bestway summary judgment on the negligence and warranty counts and barred punitive damages, leaving only the two strict-liability claims for trial.⁶

After a weeklong trial, a federal jury found the pool’s design “unreasonably dangerous” and concluded that Bestway had failed to provide adequate warnings. The jury assigned Bestway 65 percent of the liability and awarded $25 million in damages. Rather than appeal, Bestway and the Justice family reached a confidential settlement described in court filings as a “full and complete resolution of all claims.”²

The Consolidated Consumer Class Action

Consumer class actions began within weeks of the recall. Susana Castro filed the first on August 12, 2025, in the Northern District of Illinois (Case No. 1:25-cv-09570).⁷ A California case followed on October 8, 2025 (Piceno et al. v. Bestway USA Inc., Case No. 2:25-cv-07878), asserting claims under the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and alleging that Bestway made “claims of ease of use” while concealing the strap hazard.⁵

By November 2025, Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins had consolidated Piceno, Hill et al. v. Bestway, and Holloway v. Bestway into a single proceeding captioned In re: Bestway Above-Ground Pools Litigation. Kevin Laukaitis and Rachel Soffin were appointed co-lead interim class counsel, and plaintiffs filed a consolidated amended complaint on November 24, 2025.⁸

On November 12, 2025, the court stayed Bestway’s response deadline while the parties pursue mediation. A joint status report on mediation was due by February 20, 2026. No motions to dismiss have been filed and no class has been certified.⁸

What Plaintiffs Are Arguing

The lawsuits split into two tracks. Wrongful-death and injury cases like the Justice suit rely on traditional product-liability theories: that the compression-strap design was unreasonably dangerous and that Bestway knew or should have known young children could use it to bypass the removable ladder. The Missouri jury accepted both the design-defect and failure-to-warn theories.⁶

The consumer class action takes a different angle. The Piceno complaint alleges that Bestway marketed the pools as safe while omitting the strap hazard, that buyers paid more than they otherwise would have, and that they “would have purchased a different above-ground pool product” had they known. Plaintiffs also argue that the free rope kit is not an adequate remedy because installing it requires draining the pool.⁵

If You Own a Recalled Pool

If you own a Bestway Power Steel, Steel Pro, or Coleman Power Steel above-ground pool that is 48 inches or taller and was sold between 2008 and 2024, it is covered by the recall and you can request a free repair kit from Bestway. The recall does not cover pools whose straps run behind the support legs. Whether joining the consumer class action or pursuing an individual claim is available to you depends on where you live and what happened; the consolidated case is still at the pleading and mediation stage, and no class has yet been certified.¹⁸

1
CPSC. Bestway, Intex, and Polygroup Recall Certain Above-Ground Pools
2
Legal Newsline. Jury Awards $25M for Toddler’s Drowning in Defective Pool
3
KTAR. Above-Ground Pool Recall
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NBC Chicago. After Several Midwest Deaths, Millions of Above-Ground Pools Recalled
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ClassAction.org. Bestway Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Recalled Above-Ground Pools Pose Drowning Risk
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GovInfo. Justice v. Bestway, Memorandum and Order
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PACER Monitor. In re Bestway Above-Ground Pools Litigation
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Justia. In re: Bestway Above-Ground Pools Litigation