Even the lawyers want out of troubled real estate firm Town Residential.
The high-end firm has seen an exodus of brokers, including Wendy Maitland, who dropped a bombshell lawsuit in May claiming the company is “rudderless” and accusing Town owner Joseph Sitt of starving the business of funds.
Last month, Sitt, who also owns Thor Equities, sold his half of Town Residential to firm co-owner Andrew Heiberger, who has had a rocky relationship with longtime company lawyer Joseph Matalon. Now Matalon wants out of the Maitland case.
Heiberger has slammed Matalon as a “lowlife liar” and a “fraudster,” and told him to “screw off,” claims Matalon in a Manhattan Supreme Court filing seeking a judge’s approval to withdraw from the Maitland case.
“Mr. Heiberger has never gotten along with Joseph Matalon,” according to a court transcript.
Heiberger didn’t deny slamming Matalon in the past, adding “the matter with Joe Sitt and Thor Equities has been settled through my 100 percent buyout of Town. My attorneys are handling the Maitland lawsuit and I am solely focused on business and excited to be working without drama.”
Maitland’s “nuclear” lawsuit hasn’t harmed Town Residential, insisted Heiberger in an interview with The Post, who said the firm has completed almost half a billion dollars of sales and leasing deals between June 1 and Aug. 11.
“We’re doing extremely well,” he said, adding that Maitland is “really just shooting herself in the foot” with the legal claim.
The relationship between Heiberger and Sitt was contentious for a time, and the pair “often disagreed about the management of Town,” Matalon said in court papers.
In fact, until Sitt sold out to Heiberger last month, “I was preparing a lawsuit against Heiberger on behalf of Town,” Matalon said in court documents.
In January 2014, Heiberger was briefly fired from the company, and he promptly sued. Matalon represented Town and Sitt in the case, which was dropped after a few months.
Lawyers for Maitland declined to comment on Matalon’s withdrawal.