PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, JANUARY 12, 2024 –

The Los Angeles Superior Court awarded on January 12, 2024, a $3.6 million dollar judgement to Plaintiff Victor I. Lopez, who contracted an extremely rare, flesh-eating bacteria known as Fournier’s Gangrene, while at an industrial-scale cannabis operation located just outside of downtown Los Angeles.

A necrotizing fasciitis with a historical fatality rate of 90%, the vicious bacteria started consuming his body in short order, starting from Mr. Lopez’s groin and cannibalizing more than 17% of his epidermis before doctors were able to act to save his life.  Lopez’s attorneys demonstrated at trial that Lopez made contact with the deadly illness due to the negligent conduct of the three corporate defendants, 1000 Palms & Associates, Inc., Equimax, and 59th Equity Investors, LLC, who were held to be jointly and severally liable.

The trial presented a number of novel issues, but Lopez’s attorneys had answers. Former head honcho and co-chief of the Center of Disease Control (C.D.C.) with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Plaintiff’s infectious disease expert Dr. Jefferey Galpin, testified that within a high degree of medical certainty, Lopez encountered the deadly bacteria at the grow site. In particular, Dr. Galpiin found that it was most likely in the same “sump pit” that Defendants had instructed Lopez to unclog a sewage pump, where Lopez made contact with thee organism.

Unbeknownst to Lopez, Defendants had actually retrofitted the entire grow operation and warehouse plumbing system to funnel and re-circulate waste water, run off, chemicals, nutrients, and all forms of biological agents into that same sump pit. Defendants, the Court found, did so in order to save on their water bill; to increase their own bottom line, at the expense of people like Lopez. Finally, Plaintiff’s premises and regulatory expert, Mr. Jefferey Hughes, testified that a reasonable plumber would have had no reason to believe the sump pit was dangerous, and that the Defendants had the duty to warn him of the potentially hazardous situation they had created, as well as (for the Owner and Property Manager in particular) a duty to inspect the property at regular timeframes, and that in doing so it should have been clear as to the violations the grow presented as well as the dangers it posed to the public. Defendants did not do so, and thus the trial court’s verdict granted Plaintiff Lopez $3.6M in damages for the harm suffered and the harm that is yet to come to him.

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