Rapper French Montana is being forced to cough up hundreds of thousands of dollars after his dog viciously attacked a seemingly innocent landscaper who was simply doing his job. However, the judgment is much less than the victim initially requested.
The Tibetan mountain dog belonging to French - real name Karim Kharbouch -apparently attacked Jason Levya in November 2019 after French invited the landscaper into his yard with a promise that the dog wouldn’t bother him. The dog’s bites gave Levya several lacerations that required a hospital visit and antibiotics.
The “Unforgettable” rapper was unable to change a Los Angeles judge’s mind that he didn’t know about the lawsuit, causing the court to grant Jason Leyva, the landscaper, a default judgment of $402,644 in October, according to Rolling Stone.
In the weeks leading up to the order, Montana claimed that he was late responding to Leyva’s suit because he was moving to California and was never served in person. He further alleged that he already settled the matter with Leyva. While the judge initially agreed with the New York rapper’s claim, they changed their mind after Leyva’s attorney made a much more compelling argument.
The judge changed their ruling, saying that Montana was unable to prove that the settlement was real since no documents were provided and that any money given to Leyva was simply for his landscaping services and not the dog attack.
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In a sworn statement, Leyva previously told the court that the mauling took place on Nov. 3, 2019, shortly after Kharbouch invited him into a gated yard and assured him the Tibetan mountain dog wouldn’t harm him. Leyva says he was discussing a proposed project with Kharbouch when the dog jumped up, bit down on his shoulder, and knocked him to the ground.
“French was yelling at the dog to let go and hitting the dog trying to stop him. When the dog finally let go of [my] shoulder, it did not stop attacking and instead immediately sank his teeth into my hip,” Leyva wrote. “French acknowledged the severity of the attack and told me that he would take care of my medical bills. I said that I was not okay, and as soon as I was able to do so, I left the premises and was driven straight to the hospital where my deep lacerations required multiple sutures, and I was prescribed powerful antibiotics to combat infection.”
Montana should consider himself lucky. Leyva was initially seeking $2.3 million in his suit. This is something the rapper pointed out during a February 2024 appearance on the “Way Up With Angela Yee” podcast, where he said, “I just saw somebody tried to sue me for my dog biting him for $2 million. Like, yo, did a dinosaur bite you?”
This also hurt Montana’s claim that he didn’t know about the suit until it was too late.