The singer Chris Brown was ordered to pay nearly $13 million to a former housekeeper who was mauled by a large dog at his California home in late 2020.
After a two-week civil trial, a jury on Tuesday awarded the former housekeeper, Maria Avila, $12.9 million in damages. Ms. Avila’s sister, Patricia Avila, who occasionally worked with Maria Avila and was present during the attack, was awarded $885,000, and Ms. Avila’s husband, Oscar Olivo, was awarded $50,000.
“This case has always been about accountability — not celebrity,” a lawyer for Ms. Avila, Nancy Doumanian, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“After hearing weeks of testimony and considering all of the evidence,” Ms. Doumanian added, “the jury rejected the defense’s claim that our client was at fault for the dog mauling and returned a verdict recognizing the devastating and permanent consequences of this attack.”
A lawyer for Mr. Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
In the original complaint filed in Superior Court of California for Los Angeles County in July 2021, Maria Avila said that while performing her housekeeping duties at Mr. Brown’s home in Tarzana, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2020, a large dog attacked her while she emptied the trash.
The dog, which the complaint described as a Caucasian shepherd named Hades, weighed more than 200 pounds.
“While reaching into the trash receptacle to dispose of trash, a very large brown dog comes out of nowhere and viciously and brutally mauls, bites and attacks” Ms. Avila, the complaint said, adding that the dog “savagely” bit her face, arms and other parts of her body.
Ms. Avila said in the complaint that at one point after the episode, Mr. Brown stood over her talking on his phone and ordered his security team to remove all the dogs from the property before the police arrived.
She explained in her lawsuit that the dog attack resulted in a number of debilitating injuries, including lacerations and fractures to her face. Chunks of her skin and her nerves were torn from her face, arms and body, the lawsuit said.
Ms. Avila’s sister, who was present during the attack, was awarded $750,000 for emotional distress and $135,000 in economic losses. Ms. Avila’s husband’s award was for consortium damages, including the loss of companionship.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Animal Shelter euthanized the dog about 11 days after the attack.
Mr. Brown, who is on a national stadium tour with the R&B singer Usher, testified last month that he had not owned the dog but that his security team had purchased it, according to Rolling Stone. Mr. Brown said he had warned the Avila sisters, in English, that the dogs were not friendly and advised them not to go outside without his permission. A lawyer for Maria Avila said that the sisters primarily spoke Spanish.
Mr. Brown also testified that he did not personally call emergency responders out of fear of attracting outsize attention from the news media and that he had left his home for hours after the attack at his manager’s direction.
Asked by a lawyer for Ms. Avila what would have been the problem if he had waited for the paramedics to arrive, Mr. Brown said, according to Rolling Stone: “I didn’t want a misleading story, or like a circus, from my status. It’s pretty sticky when it comes to that. So me staying out of the way was advised.”
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
