Sam and Lara Worthington are suing their former landlord in Manhattan Supreme Court after he refused to return their security deposit on their New York rental home.
Eric Steel is refusing to return their bond as he claims the couple damaged a $115,000 table in the Chelsea loft, which was designed by his stepfather and late Modernist architect Charles Gwathmey,
The table allegedly requires $86,000 worth of repairs, according to the New York Post.
The piece of furniture has long sat in the Manhattan apartment, which is owned by Steel and rented out for approximately $45,400 (US$30,000) a month.
Steel is allegedly refusing to return the deposit and has claimed the Worthingtons have wrecked the table and ‘trashed’ the loft after renting it for over a year.
He is demanding payment of $454,000 (US$300,000).
Steel was previously sued by media mogul Arianna Huffington after he accused her of damaging the same table and the suit was swiftly settled.
Worthington’s lawyer Anne W. Salisbury told The Post: ‘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.’
Sam and Lara Worthington are suing their former landlord in Manhattan Supreme Court after he refused to return their security deposit on their New York rental home
‘Steel’s demands and counterclaims are demonstrably false and baseless under New York law, as the Worthingtons will prove in court.’
The Worthingtons have admitted to ‘wear and tear’ in the apartment, including a broken cupboard and some scrapes on the walls, according to the lawsuit.
‘Plaintiffs could not possibly have caused more than a couple thousand dollars of damage,’ the Worthington’s lawyer said.
Salisbury told The Post the couple had ‘offered to pay more than the cost of repairs’.
Lara shares three sons – Rocket, seven, Racer, six, and River, two – with Sam.
The couple, who began dating in 2013 and secretly married in 2014, relocated to the US to live a quiet life away from the spotlight.
Eric Steel is refusing to return their bond as he claims the couple damaged a $115,000 table in the Chelsea loft which was designed by his stepfather and late Modernist architect Charles Gwathmey
