Nevada jury returns $5.2 billion verdict against Vegas company in bottled water liver injury case

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury in Nevada awarded a $5.2 billion award in the latest high-stakes case against a former Las Vegas-based bottled water company previously found liable for causing liver damage to customers. recalled from store shelves In 2021.

AffinityLifestyles.com Inc., according to Clark County District Court records. The 12-day hearing in the negligence and product liability lawsuit filed against the company and its Real Water brand ended with a verdict on Wednesday. The jury awarded Hunter Brown and several other plaintiffs nearly $230 million in compensatory damages and $5 billion in punitive damages.

Attorney Will Kemp, representing the plaintiffs, said: Las Vegas Review-Journal He expects Real Water’s insurance company to fight against paying compensation because the company has filed for bankruptcy.

Affinitylifestyles.com is chaired by Brent Jones, who served as a Republican Nevada State Assembly member from 2016 to 2018. Lawyers for Jones and the company did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.

The jury had previously awarded different verdicts against the company, awarding almost all of the plaintiffs. 3.1 billion dollars in June$130 million in February And $228 million in October 2023. Jurors were told that tests found Real Water contained hydrazine, a chemical used in rocket fuel that may have been added during purification before bottling.

Defense attorneys stated that the company was not reckless but inadvertently negligent because it did not know hydrazine was in the water and did not know how to test for it.

Kemp represents additional plaintiffs in multiple ongoing civil lawsuits against the company.

Real Water was sold in distinctive boxed blue bottles as premium purified “alkalized” drinking water with healthy detoxification properties. It was distributed to stores throughout the Southwest, including Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and the Los Angeles area, and was also delivered to homes in bulk bottles before being pulled from shelves in March 2021.