Chris Brown Must Hand Over Tour Revenue to Dog-Attack Victim, Judge Rules

A Los Angeles judge has ruled that Chris Brown must hand over a cut of revenue from his stadium tour with Usher to a former housekeeper who won a $12.9 million verdict after being mauled by Brown's dog.

Judge Huey P. Cotton issued the order on Thursday, 20 August, granting Maria Avila's request that "all present and future nonexempt rights to payment" owed to Brown be assigned to her. The ruling targets money from the R&B Tour, the co-headlining stadium trek Brown launched with Usher in June — the name combines their last names, Raymond and Brown — which runs across North America until December. After just 16 shows, the tour had already grossed more than $115 million by 1 August, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. (Billboard)

Avila was severely injured in 2020 while cleaning Brown's home in Tarzana, California. She sued in 2021, alleging that she was attacked by a 200-pound Caucasian shepherd named Hades while emptying trash outside the property. The dog, she said, ripped off "large chunks" of her skin, causing permanent facial disfigurement, scarring and vision loss.

Brown had accepted some liability for negligence, but the case went to trial in June. On the stand, he testified that he had personally warned Avila his dogs were "absolutely not" friendly and that she should not go outside alone. Jurors sided with Avila, awarding her $12.9 million in damages — a verdict handed down in late June.

Avila's attorneys demanded the touring money last month, telling the court that Brown had "made no effort to satisfy any portion of the judgment" since the verdict. That claim, and the timing of the tour's earnings, appear to have shaped the judge's decision to go after Brown's live revenue directly — an assignment order, the mechanism by which a debtor's incoming payments are diverted to a creditor.

Brown is now seeking to overturn the dog-attack verdict itself and will likely challenge the assignment order as well, according to Billboard. The tour, meanwhile, continues through the end of the year.

For the crew, promoters and venue staff working the R&B Tour, the shows go on regardless. What changes is where a portion of the money lands at the end of the line.