Some monetary relief may be on the horizon for Chris Brown, found liable earlier this year for a vicious dog attack in 2020 that left a housekeeper working at his Tarzana home hospitalized with injuries to her face, arm and leg.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the R&B star, granting the musician and his team’s motion for a new trial on the nearly $12.9 million in damages owed to plaintiff Maria Avila, the housekeeper a jury awarded the hefty sum in July. According to the ruling, reviewed by The Times, the court found “the jury’s award to Maria Avila is excessive,” citing “insufficient evidence” of the “extensive permanent nerve damage” and of “the value to future pain and suffering” resulting from the 2020 incident.
Judge Huey P. Cotton ruled that Avila can either agree to a reduced award of $9.5 million in damages or undergo a new trial for the damages. She has until Tuesday to decide. Neither legal representatives for Brown nor Avila, also identified in court documents as Maria Soledad Avila Marmolejo, immediately responded on Wednesday to The Times’ request for comment.
Avila’s sister and co-plaintiff, Patricia Avila sued Brown in April 2021, alleging premises liability, negligent infliction of emotional distress and strict liability. Patricia Avila alleged in her 2021 suit that she and Maria Avila were hired in November 2020 as housekeepers at Brown’s home in Tarzana.
The suit said the sisters were aware the singer owned dogs at the property and understood he kept the pets locked up in a different part of the home. According to the complaint, the incident occurred in December 2020 when Maria went to the home’s backyard to empty a vacuum. There, she encountered the singer’s Caucasian shepherd, which “proceeded to viciously attack Maria,” the lawsuit said. The complaint alleged the dog attacked Maria around her eye, her left arm and had bitten into her leg.
After years of litigation and a two-week trial in June in Van Nuys, a civil jury decided Brown owed Maria Avila $12.9 million in damages for counts including emotional distress and medical expenses. At the time Brown was ordered to pay $885,000 in damages to Patricia Avila and $50,000 in damages to Maria’s husband. Brown and his Black Pyramid Co. apparel business, a co-defendant, argued in their motion filed in August that the award to Patricia Avila was “excessive and unsupported by evidence.” The court found otherwise on Tuesday, according to the ruling, and kept the original award to Patricia Avila.
At the time of the original verdict, Patricia Avila’s attorney Michael C. Murphy Jr. told The Times in a statement that his team was “thrilled” by the outcome.
“We are so happy for her and her family after everything they went through on that horrible day,” he said. “It was an honor to represent her.”
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