Chris Brown’s Company Loses Bid to Dismantle Dog Bite Lawsuit
The housekeeper who sued Chris Brown with claims his Caucasian Orvchake shepherd “savagely” mauled her in 2020 scored a court victory Wednesday. A Los Angeles judge upheld the bulk of her claims against Brown’s company and said a trial would begin next month.
Brown’s lawyer had challenged six of the nine claims filed by the housekeeper and her husband in July 2021. The defense lawyer claimed Brown’s company, Black Pyramid, did not own the dog and further argued the lawsuit’s allegations were either redundant or simply lacked the necessary evidence. The judge did dismiss one claim — for negligent infliction of emotional distress — saying it was duplicative of a separate negligence claim, but she upheld a subsequent claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
More from Rolling Stone
Michael Jackson's Unreleased Studio Tapes Yanked From Auction Site Amid Lawsuit Threat
Jonathan Majors Cries in Court as Domestic Violence Trial Comes to a Close
“The court has denied Black Pyramid’s request for judgment on the pleadings on most of the substantive claims Black Pyramid has challenged,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa R. Jaskol wrote in her ruling adopted Wednesday. She said at this stage in the case, “the pleading under attack must be accepted as true.” She further ruled that the housekeeper’s application for a worker’s compensation claim did not undercut her lawsuit because her complaint does not allege Black Pyramid was her employer.
The housekeeper, who’s suing as a Jane Doe, alleges in her lawsuit that she was hired by an outside agency to perform cleaning services at Brown’s mansion in Tarzana, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2020. She claims she was taking out some trash to an outdoor receptacle when the dog, named Hades, pounced on her out of nowhere, “savagely biting” her face, her arms and body.
She says the dog was “literally tearing out and ripping off large chunks of her skin from her face and her arms,” according to the complaint. “She is screaming in terror and calling out for help, yet no one came to her assistance,” her 28-page lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone alleges.
“As she lay there bleeding profusely, barely able to see as blood is covering her eyes, face, and body she observes defendant Brown approach her, standing over her, as he is speaking on his cell phone,” the lawsuit states. The housekeeper alleges Brown ordered his security to grab Hades and other dogs on the property and remove them from the premises before police arrived.
“Defendant Brown was essentially instructing his security team to destroy evidence and flee the scene. The plaintiff remains on the ground bleeding profusely, with large chunks of skin missing from her face, arms, and body, and fearing she is going to die. In that moment, plaintiff reasonably believed that all the occupants of the home had left her there to die,” her paperwork states. She alleges someone drove Hades hundreds of miles north, to Humboldt County, where he was later found with a chip tracing back to Brown. She says the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Animal Shelter determined the dog was dangerous, so it was euthanized.
“Plaintiffs further allege [Brown] ran an unlicensed business at the premises wherein he was engaged in the business of breeding large breed, dangerous and vicious attack dogs at his home including selling those dogs, which included Hades,” the lawsuit states.
The housekeeper’s husband, identified as John Doe, alleges in the lawsuit that the “injuries and harms to his wife” led to a breakdown in their marriage. He’s suing for “loss of love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support of his wife who was nearly killed in the incident and left in a pool of her own blood by the defendants.”
Brown’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment after the ruling Wednesday. When Brown answered the complaint in August 2022, he called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said the plaintiffs were the ones at fault for “how they conducted” themselves.
In a filing seeking a default judgment against Brown, the housekeeper and her husband allege they suffered damages topping $120 million.
The housekeeper’s sister, meanwhile, was present at the house at the time of the attack and filed a separate complaint alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress. She claims she heard the dog growling and her sister shrieking in pain. Brown responded to that lawsuit saying the sister has no standing to sue because she was a “remote” bystander.
Best of Rolling Stone
