Exclusive | NYC landlord accuses famous tenants of trashing their sublet and wrecking a $115,000 Charles Gwathmey table for the second time
It’s a precious table, designed by the late Modernist architect Charles Gwathmey, valued at $115,000.If it’s damaged, it allegedly requires $86,000 worth of repairs.It sits in an enormous Chelsea loft owned by Gwathmey’s stepson, Eric Steel, who rents out the unit for around $30,000 a month.And now, Steel is allegedly refusing to return the security deposit to his most recent subletters — Australian power couple Sam and Lara Worthington, who sued him earlier this month in Manhattan Supreme Court.
In response, Steel claims that the Worthingtons wrecked the trophy table and trashed the loft.He is demanding payment of $300,000.The dispute is oddly similar to one from a decade ago, when Steel sued a previous high-profile subtenant, media mogul Arianna Huffington, whom he accused of wrecking the very same table and trashing the place.“Steel’s attempt to use his playbook of fabricating damage and targeting his tenants for remuneration will not be tolerated by the Worthingtons, who left the apartment in near-pristine condition,” said Anne W.
Salisbury of Guzov LLC, the couple’s lawyer.“Steel’s demands and counterclaims are demonstrably false and baseless under New York law, as the Worthingtons will prove in court.”The Worthingtons — Sam is known for his acting in “Avatar” while Lara, nee Lara Bingle, is a model with nearly 2 million Instagram followers — recently vacated the unit after a year or so of subletting.The Worthingtons, who have three young sons, admit to normal wear and tear, and to some damages beyond their control — such as water intrusion from the building envelope, the lawsuit says.
They left behind a broken cupboard, plus some nicks and scrapes on the walls.“Plaintiffs could not possibly have caused more than a couple thousand dollars of damage,” the Worthingtons’ lawyer says.As for that $86,000 to repair the Gwathmey table, the suit calls the sum “astronomical .
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to the point of absurdity.”The unit came part...