Ex-Partner in Epilady Wins $27.3 Million

A Santa Monica jury has awarded $27.3 million in punitive damages to a woman who contended that she was unfairly cut off from a company that was the root of the Epilady hair removal empire.

The punitive damages, awarded to Patricia Jones on Tuesday by a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury, came on top of $13.7 million in compensatory damages granted by the same jury last week.

The verdict--$41 million in all--amounts to several times more than Epilady’s maker, EPI Products USA, ever earned, according to Robert L. Esensten, a lawyer for the Krok family, which brought Epilady to the United States in 1987. Attorneys for Jones disputed that claim, contending that the Kroks transferred money from EPI to other entities.

“Thank the Lord above the court decided in my favor,” said Jones, still giddy a day after the jury’s decision.

Sounding a bit like an Academy Award winner as she thanked her lawyers, their secretary, her mother, her boyfriend and her dog, Jones said she was particularly pleased that the jury unanimously awarded the $13.7 million in compensatory damages. The 12-member panel split on the punitive damages, with three favoring a lesser amount, she said.

Esensten said the Krok family intends to appeal.

“It’s really hard to swallow all of this,” he said. “It makes you wonder where justice is if they come up with something like this.”

The jury assessed the bulk of the punitive damages--$24 million--against Solomon (Solly) Krok. In 1981, the family patriarch bankrolled a firm called A-Plus Products for his daughter Arlene and Jones, then her best friend.

Jones was a 20% partner in A-Plus, from which she contended EPI Products emerged. In her suit, filed in 1989, she alleged that after helping develop the business, she was pushed aside when the enterprise skyrocketed.

Arlene Krok was assessed $2.34 million in punitive damages; another sister who joined the business later, Sharon Krok Feuer, was assessed $1 million.

Epilady promised smoother legs than could be achieved by shaving, but the electric hair removal gadget proved painful for some women. The EPI empire, which included several other products, began to disintegrate amid charges of disorganization, overspending and fraud.

Santa Monica-based EPI Products is operating under bankruptcy-court protection.