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Chris Brown's Housekeeper Accepts Reduced $9.5M Award
Confirmed
In Short: Former housekeeper Maria Avila has agreed to accept a reduced $9.5 million award rather than risk a new trial in her dog mauling case against Chris Brown.
In June, a jury awarded Avila $12.9 million for injuries she suffered when Brown's dog, Hades, attacked her while she was working at his Tarzana, California, home in 2020.
Brown's lawyers had successfully pushed for a new trial on damages unless Avila agreed to the reduction, arguing that the original award was excessive.
Judge Michael J. London ruled that the jury's award was excessive and granted a new trial on damages unless Avila accepted the reduced amount.
Avila's attorney, Nancy Doumanian, wrote, 'Plaintiff Maria Avila hereby unequivocally accepts the remittitur and consents to the reduction of her damages award.
The revised $9.5 million award includes $3.85 million for past non-economic losses and $5.4 million for future non-economic losses.
Brown testified during the trial that he specifically warned Avila not to go outside unaccompanied because of the unfriendly dog.
Judge London rejected Brown's argument that jurors were improperly influenced by learning about his prior felony conviction stemming from his assault on Rihanna.
Avila's sister, Patricia, was also awarded $885,000, while Maria’s husband received $50,000.
The ruling leaves the jury’s finding against Brown intact and limits any new trial to how much Avila should receive.
The procedure, known as remittitur, allows a judge who finds a jury award excessive to offer the winning party a reduced amount instead of immediately ordering another trial.
Avila can accept the lower award or reject it and ask a new jury to determine her damages.
Brown's lawyers did not respond to a request for comment on the reasoning behind the decision.
What this adds
The decision to accept the reduced award avoids the risk and uncertainty of a new trial.
What's confirmed
- “Plaintiff Maria Avila hereby unequivocally accepts the remittitur and consents to the reduction of her damages award,” wrote Avila’s attorney, Nancy Doumanian.
- In June, a jury awarded Avila $12.9 million for the physical and emotional wounds she suffered from being mauled by a Caucasian shepherd — a massive, aggressive dog breed notorious for their use as guard dogs at Russian prisons — while working at Brown’s Tarzana, Calif., home in 2020.
What's still developing
- The former housekeeper mauled by a 200-pound dog at Chris Brown ’s house has agreed to cut several million dollars off her $13 million trial verdict against the R&B star.
- That is a $3.4 million haircut, and the next move now belongs to Brown’s former housekeeper.
- A new damages trial is officially off the table in Chris Brown ’s dog attack case.
- Fort Wayne, IN Legal News, Information & Blogs Chris Brown’s former housekeeper must choose between accepting $9.5 million or returning to trial over damages after a Los Angeles judge ruled that her $12.9 million dog attack award was excessive.
- Cotton found that the evidence supported compensation for Avila’s emotional distress, scarring and continuing pain, but concluded there was insufficient evidence of the extensive permanent nerve damage underlying part of the jury’s award.
- Read More » A Los Angeles judge has ordered qualifying tour and entertainment payments owed to Chris Brown redirected to his former housekeeper as she seeks to collect the nearly $13 million judgment she won after being mauled by one of his dogs.Judge Huey P.
- The lawyer did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone ‘s request for comment on the reasoning behind the decision, but a new trial would have posed the prospect of added expense, uncertainty, and an unknown emotional toll. (Brown’s lawyers did not respond to a separate request for comment.) At the hearing last week, Doumanian argued that Avila suffered a serious injury to her radial nerve, leaving her with reduced movement in her wrist and fingers and impairing her ability to grip objects, write, type, dress, groom herself, clean, and perform other daily activities.
- Brown said he left his property before paramedics arrived because his manager allegedly suggested it.
- The housekeeper mauled by a massive Caucasian Shepherd outside Chris Brown ‘s house four years ago has agreed to reduce her jury award to $9.5 million to avoid a new trial.