No special treatment for Madonna in NY court case
Madonna won’t get any special treatment in her court case against the owners of her apartment building.
The 58-year-old singer is reportedly suing One West 64th Street for enforcing strict rules, which forbid her from allowing people – including her children Lourdes, 19, Rocco, 16, Mercy, 10, and David, 11, as well as her staff – to stay in a second unit she owns in the block when she is not there.
But Judge Gerald Lebovits insisted Madonna should not be treated differently to other residents, just because she is famous.
According to the New York Post’s Page Six, he told her lawyer: "Let’s say your client were a traveling salesperson or away in college or serving a brief period in jail, wouldn’t your client be as protected then as she is now going on tour and spending an inordinate amount of time in hotels?
"It’s the same principle. There’s a landlord-tenant relationship between your client and the cooperative corporation and they could bring a Housing Court action to evict."
The ‘Music’ hitmaker has previously insisted the owners knew her status and lifestyle and did not object to letting others stay when she first moved into the property 12 years ago, four years before she bought the second apartment.
In Manhattan Court Papers, Madonna said: "At that time, I was, and still am, a world-known performing artist.
"At that time, One West knew or should have known that I travelled extensively and owned other residences.’
"[The building] is a place I call home. It is there that I have my cherished personal effects and property such as artwork, paintings, sculpture, special furniture and the like.”
And the legal documentation argues One West "never" objected previously to people staying when she wasn’t there, and insists it is an unenforceable rule.
The documents state: "Certainly such a requirement is ridiculous and impossible for almost any family to comply with, and certainly not someone with plaintiff’s itinerant schedule.
"To be sure, One West knew the plaintiff’s living, working, traveling lifestyle as a celebrated entertainer when she purchased the apartment; One West never objected."
