Nevada jury awards $130M to 5 people who had liver damage after drinking bottled water
A Nevada jury has awarded about $130 million in damages in a lawsuit filed by five people who suffered liver damage before bottled water marketed by a Las Vegas-based company was recalled in 2021
LAS VEGAS — A Nevada jury has awarded about $130 million in damages in a lawsuit filed by five people who suffered liver damage after drinking bottled water marketed by a Las Vegas-based company before the product was recalled from store shelves in 2021.
The Clark County District Court jury awarded more than $30 million in compensatory damages to the plaintiffs including Myles Hunwardsen, a Henderson man who underwent a liver transplant at age 29. The jury levied another $100 million in punitive damages.
The verdict reached Tuesday was the second large-sum award in a negligence and product liability case involving AffinityLifestyles.com Inc. and its Real Water brand, which was sold in distinctive boxy blue bottles as premium treated “alkalized” drinking water with healthy detoxifying properties.
In October, a state court jury awarded more than $228 million in damages to several plaintiffs including relatives of a 69-year-old woman who died and a 7-month-old boy who was hospitalized. Both were diagnosed with severe liver failure.
“We want to send a message to food and beverage manufacturers that they should be committed to quality assurance,” Will Kemp, a lawyer who represented plaintiffs in both trials, said Thursday.
Kemp said several more negligence and product liability cases are pending against the company, including one scheduled to begin in May stemming from liver damage diagnoses of six children who ranged in age from 7 months to 11 years old at the time.
Affinitylifestyles.com was headed by Brent Jones, who served as a
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