ON THE ROCKS: Steven Silverstein (above), outside his Upper East Side apartment yesterday, is suing ex-fiancée Kendra Platt-Lee for everything from rent to wedding expenses. (Byron Smith)
ON THE ROCKS: Steven Silverstein (right), outside his Upper East Side apartment yesterday, is suing ex-fiancee Kendra Platt-Lee (above, right) for everything from rent to wedding expenses. (
)
Dump me once, shame on you. Dump me twice — I’ll see you in court.
A groom wannabe is suing his former fiancée — who broke off their engagement twice in two years — arguing that she should pay back her share of rent and the deposit he put down for their wedding.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Steven Silverstein says Kendra Platt-Lee stiffed him with the down payment for their now-scuttled Sept. 22 wedding in Long Beach, LI, including the venue, the band, the DJ, the photographer and the videographer.
Silverstein, 29, also wants her to cough up her half of the rent on the Upper East Side apartment that they shared for a total of 15 months during their two failed attempts at a relationship.
The wedding deposit and rent were gifts in “contemplation of their impending marriage,” he claims in the suit.
The couple began dating in March 2008 after meeting when Pratt-Lee was working as a flight attendant. The telecommunications exec apparently swept Pratt-Lee off her feet, and they were engaged within a year.
She moved from California to New York to be near her man, and by August 2009, they were living together in his East 86th Street apartment, the suit says.
Silverstein claims he paid her share of the rent for six months, until she broke things off in February 2010.
About 15 months later, he apparently decided to let bygones be bygones, and they “rekindled their relationship.” By June 2011, they “committed to enter themselves into marriage.”
Platt-Lee moved back with him in August, and her name was added to the lease, the suit says.
He again paid her share of the rent — only to get dumped after about nine months, he claims.
She“traveled to California ostensibly for a one-week visit” on April 13, the filing says, but after 10 days, she “communicated to plaintiff that she wished to call off the planned wedding . . . and end their relationship.”
After the second breakup, she withdrew $54,367.87 from their joint account, even though only $35,097.97 of that was hers, the suit says.
Platt-Lee came back to town earlier this month and “finally” returned Silverstein’s $32,000 engagement ring, the suit says, but the ex-fiancé says that’s not enough.
He wants the $19,000 back from their bank account, $28,000 in rent, and half of the $27,000 in nonrefundable deposits for which he’s on the hook for their nixed nuptials for 150 guests at the Allegria Hotel.
The filing doesn’t say what will become of the wedding gifts.
A lawyer for Platt-Lee, who’s working in marketing in San Diego, said she “generally denies” the allegations and plans to countersue, since Silverstein failed to return some of her possessions, including her makeup.
The lawyer also said Platt-Lee believed that by returning the engagement ring, the former lovebirds had resolved their dispute.
Silverstein declined comment, and his lawyer did not return calls.
Additional reporting by Helen Kumari