Woman Sues Actor Fox Over Home He Sold Her : Litigation: The buyer’s lawsuit cites a string of problems. Fox’s countersuit says he spent $15,000 on repairs and she still is not satisfied.

Actor Michael J. Fox and his entourage filed into Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday where an attorney described a Studio City ranch home the movie star sold his client as a dream house that turned into a nightmare.

At issue is who is responsible for landscaping and repairs to a gated house that Fox sold Michele Ader in 1991 for $750,000. The home is located in the mountains between Mulholland Drive and Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

“This was to be her dream house, the culmination of her life’s hard work, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Drew Pomerance, an attorney representing Ader in her lawsuit against Fox, who sat in on Monday’s opening statements.

Martin B. Snyder, Fox’s attorney, countered that it was Fox and his representatives who endured a nightmare while trying to negotiate with Ader. Snyder described Ader as an insatiable woman who made repeated demands on Fox and his representatives regarding repairs to the Fryman Canyon home and its landscaping.

“It was Michele Ader who at every turn . . . made this sale extremely difficult, intolerably difficult,” Snyder said. “This is a case about . . . a woman who could not be satisfied.”

Snyder told the jury that Fox spent $15,000 on repairs in an effort to appease Ader.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are Fox’s business manager Robert Philpott, the Jon Douglas Co. and its agents Marie Gray and Bettina Linke. The suit seeks up to $245,000 in damages and an undisclosed amount in punitive damages.

Pomerance told the jury that his client filed suit after Fox failed to repair a leaky roof, deal with a potential termite problem with the home’s foundation and replace numerous ficus trees that were killed by frost while the house was in escrow.

The attorney also said Fox knew that 14 cypress trees that lined the back yard of the house were diseased, but that he failed to tell Ader. The trees subsequently died, robbing Ader of the privacy they once provided.

Fox, who now lives in New York, countersued, alleging that Ader breached her contract by closing escrow two months after the agreed-upon date of Feb. 15, 1991. As a result, Fox was forced to make mortgage and tax payments during that time and is seeking unspecified damages, Snyder said.

Pomerance also told jurors that his client was unaware that real estate agents representing Fox were trying to get escrow on the house canceled because another agent from their company wanted to buy the property.

Don C. Sherwood, an attorney for real estate agents Gray and Linke, said his clients had nothing to do with the dispute between Fox and Ader.

Thomas Rittenburg, an attorney representing Fox’s manager Philpott, described Ader as a demanding, educated businesswoman who acknowledged that there were problems with the house before she entered into a contract with Fox.

“Ms. Ader is a woman who wants to have her cake and eat it too,” Rittenburg said.

Ader, a unit production manager in the movie industry, said in an interview during a court break that she is living in the house, “but not comfortably,” citing a lack of landscaping and a leaky roof.

During testimony Monday, Ader recalled her first visit to the house and described the master suite as “a teen-age boy’s fantasy of what a playboy pad would look like.”

The suite was painted industrial gray and included a free-standing fireplace, a bathroom with a four-level tiered ceiling and a built-in Jacuzzi and refrigerator. Ader also noted the home’s sophisticated security system and elaborate telephone system.

As a unit production manager, Ader told jurors that she is in charge of estimating and handling budgets for movie scripts. She said she has worked on films including “A Star Is Born” with Barbra Streisand, “Magnum Force” with Clint Eastwood and “Overboard” with Goldie Hawn.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.