Marisa Tomei’s parents and John Lennon’s son still fighting over a tree

What started as a neighbor-vs.-neighbor tiff over a tree has grown into a months-long, only-in-New York legal battle pitting actress Marisa Tomei’s parents against the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Gary and Addie Tomei, who live in a stately town house at 155 W. 13th St. in Greenwich Village, say in their $10 million lawsuit that Sean Lennon, owner of 153 W. 13th St., won’t give peace a chance.

Instead, the lawsuit says, he’s “arrogantly” demanding that the Tomeis alter the entrance to their landmarked brownstone in Greenwich Village’s historic district so he can save a diseased ailanthus tree on his property that has encroached on their house.

“To suggest that [the Tomeis] forever transform their 170-year-old property so that [Lennon] may temporarily enjoy viewing its tree is absurd,” the couple’s lawyer, Gerald Walters, says in court papers filed this week in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The Tomeis are asking a judge to force Lennon, 40, to remove the 24-inch-diameter, 60-foot-tall rotting tree from in front of his home. They say the roots have cracked their stoop, crept into their basement and compromised their foundation.

Though Lennon’s own arborist has said the tree will live for only another 25 years, Sean has refused to uproot it, the Tomeis say.

By: Julia Marsh

Source: New York Post

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