Justin Theroux Takes Beef With Neighbor to Court

MANHATTAN (CN) — Justin Theroux, an actor and husband to Jennifer Aniston, has sued the couple's downstairs neighbor and the board of directors of their Greenwich Village co-op for $350,000 in a feud over renovations.

One of the stars of HBO's "The Leftovers," Theroux filed the lengthy complaint on May 19 in Manhattan Supreme Court. Aniston, who co-starred with Theroux in the movie “Wanderlust," is not a party to the complaint.

Taking aim at Norman Resnicow, an attorney who also lives at 71 Washington Place, Theroux says neighborly decency disappeared after he started renovations on his two second-floor units. “Seizing upon his legal training, and repeatedly seeking to leverage Mr. Theroux’s standing as a public figure, attorney Resnicow has made it his twisted sport to bully and intimidate Mr. Theroux, depriving Mr. Theroux of his right to use and enjoy his property," the complaint states.

While Theroux appears weary of living beside a lawyer, Resnicow complained in an email on the case about his neighbor's flair for the dramatic.

“This lawsuit is really about the terrace boundary, as you can see from the remedies sections at the end of the complaint,” said Resnicow, an attorney with the firm Fox Horan & Camerini. “The rest is legal pyrotechnics fiction, like in the movies and television.”

In one particularly explosive section of the complaint, Theroux contends that Resnicow has made him the target of a “persistent vendetta," marked by “tyrannical conduct" and “excessive and unreasonable threats and demands."

Theroux says his refusal to pay for as much soundproofing as Resnicow demanded led the lawyer to shut off his water and electricity, killing the ivy plants on his side of the building. Resnicow also allegedly tried to get his original radiator fixtures replaced at Theroux's expense. The complaint says the lawyer falsely accused Theroux of damaging the building’s marble entrance, and halted roof-deck renovations by disputing the proper boundary lines.

Marked by “long combative emails," according to the complaint, Renicow's bullying has gone on for 20 months. Theroux quotes his neighbor as saying in one September 2015 email, for example: “we are not amenable to cutting babies in half (‘we’ll do this, but not that’), since what we expect is the least to be expected under the circumstances and as a matter of fundamental neighborly decency.”

Another of Resnicow’s emails cited in the complaint mentions a $3,000 monthly co-op maintenance fee.

Theroux seeks $350,000 for nuisance and trespass, and declaratory judgment detailing how much of the roof deck Theroux has the exclusive right to use. The actor is represented by Eric Sherman at Pryor Cashman.

On Tuesday May 16 the NYC Department of Buildings approved the Earnst Architect PLLC’s application to do plumbing work on the floors of the second-floor units owned by Theroux.

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