Marisa Tomei’s Parents in Feud With Sean Lennon

They file $10M lawsuit over tree
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2015 9:52 AM CST
Marisa Tomei’s Parents in Feud With Sean Lennon
Marisa Tomei attends the premiere of "Loitering With Intent" at the SVA Theatre on Jan. 14, 2015, in New York.   (Photo Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Marisa Tomei's parents and John Lennon's son are neighbors, but apparently not happy ones. Tomei's parents, Gary and Addie, have filed a $10 million lawsuit against Sean Lennon, alleging that a 60-foot-high tree in his Greenwich Village front yard has pushed through the foundation of their townhouse next door and is growing into their front stoop, breaking the railing, compromising the basement wall, and damaging the building's structural integrity. They also say Lennon's contractor disrupted an underground stream while digging around the home, washing out the soil underneath the Tomei home and causing the house to shift and the windows and doors to warp; they add that their townhouse was damaged again when Lennon's pipes burst this year and flooded their home.

The Tomeis (who had to live with Marisa temporarily after the aforementioned flood) say they've tried to get the 39-year-old musician to address the tree problem for a year. "He refuses to do anything. He's owned it for six years and neglected it. I like him personally, but he's stubborn and he has a lawyer who is very belligerent," Gary Tomei tells the New York Daily News, which has pictures of the offending tree. "I want him to take the tree down and pay my expenses. It's not cheap. I tried, but you can't talk to him. He's always traveling." He adds that masons don't want to repair his stoop because "they say it's just going to happen again." A lawyer for Lennon, the Daily News notes, "appeared surprised" when told the lawsuit cites damages at $10 million. "Over a tree," he said. (More Marisa Tomei stories.)

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