Home Buyer Sues Michael J. Fox, Says Dream Became ‘Nightmare’
Actor Michael J. Fox filed into Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday to hear opening arguments in a legal dispute stemming from the 1991 sale of his Studio City ranch house--a place the buyer alleges was a dream house that “turned into a nightmare.”
At issue is who is responsible for landscaping and repairs to the gated house that Fox sold Michele Ader for $750,000.
“This was to be her dream house, the culmination of her life’s hard work,” said Drew Pomerance, an attorney representing Ader.
But the actor’s attorney, Martin B. Snyder, called Ader an insatiable buyer who made repeated demands on Fox and his representatives regarding repairs to the Fryman Canyon home.
“It was Michele Ader who at every turn . . . made this sale extremely difficult, intolerably difficult,” Snyder said.
He told jurors that Fox--who filed a countersuit against Adler--spent $15,000 in repairs in his effort to appease her.
Also named as defendants in Ader’s suit are Fox’s business manager, his real estate company and its agents. She seeks $245,000 in actual damages and an undisclosed amount in punitive damages.
Pomerance told jurors that Ader brought the action after Fox failed to repair a leaky roof, deal with a potential termite problem and replace numerous ficus trees that were killed by frost while the house was in escrow. In addition, 14 cypress trees that lined the back yard were diseased and subsequently died, robbing Ader of privacy, he said.
Fox, who now lives in New York, has countercharged that Ader breached her contract by closing escrow two months after the agreed date, forcing him to make extra mortgage and tax payments.
A unit production manager in the movie industry, Ader testified Monday that her first visit to the house left her with the impression that the master suite was “a teen-age boy’s fantasy of what a playboy pad would look like.”
Painted industrial gray, it included a free-standing fireplace, a bathroom with a four-level tiered ceiling and a built-in spa and refrigerator.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
