Carly Simon Sues Over Dakota Apartment Deal

[Janice]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D7TQU8R00.html

Carly Simon Sues Over Dakota Down Payment

NEW YORK (AP) - Singer Carly Simon, denied ownership in the swank Dakota apartment house, has sued to get back a $99,000 down payment she made on a one-bedroom apartment, but the would-be sellers contend that it's her fault the deal fell through.

Simon, 58, was "rude and disrespectful" during a May interview with the Dakota's board of directors, which later rejected her application to buy the $990,000 apartment, an attorney for apartment owners Laurence and Holly Stone said in a letter to Simon's lawyer.

The attorney, Scott Stone, said Simon had demanded that she be allowed to install a second bathroom in the apartment, and warned the board that its failure to grant such approval would be a "deal breaker." He contended that Simon canceled the contract, and that her "professional stature does not exempt her from compliance with well-settled contract and real estate law."

Simon's lawyer, Steven Hochberg, responded in a letter that the board "was rude and accusatory and appeared to have made up its mind before the interview." He likened the interview to an "inquisition" and said board members had suggested that Simon wanted the apartment not for her own use but for her children.

The letters were submitted in Simon's lawsuit, filed Thursday.

Simon's hits include "Haven't Got Time for the Pain,""Anticipation,""You're So Vain" and "Nobody Does it Better."

The Dakota, overlooking Central Park on Manhattan's Upper West Side, is where former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed by a deranged fan in 1980.