MELANIE Lidle lost her husband last Oct. 11 when Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle crashed his plane into 524 E. 72nd St. Christopher Lidle, 6, lost his father.
But celebrity dentist Dr. Larry Rosenthal and his wife, Sandra, say they lost their clothes and furniture when the plane struck the high-rise building 13 floors below their 43rd floor apartment - and they want Lidle’s estate to pay for them.
“A wing of the airplane went through their window," their lawyer, David Jaroslawicz, explained to Page Six.
Rosenthal - who is as expert at extracting cash from insurance companies as he is with impacted molars - has sued Lidle’s estate for $5 Million in compensatory damages, plus $2 Million for their “mental anguish and distress."
While the Rosenthals’ suffering might be minimal compared to that of Lidle’s widow and her grieving little boy, Jaroslawicz said, “There’s the nuisance of being thrown out of your apartment, having to go out and buy clothes. It’s an inconvenience."
The lawyer stressed that the Rosenthals’ payoff wouldn’t come from Lidle’s survivors, but from an insurance company, just like the $85,000 Rosenthal collected after he sued himself in 2003. Rosenthal - whose patients have included Donald Trump, Bruce Springsteen, Christie Brinkley and Catherine Zeta-Jones - was driving his Vespa in the Hamptons that summer when his son, Eric, then 11, fell off the back of the scooter and broke his wrist.
The dutiful father hired a lawyer so his son could sue the driver - himself. When we broke the story of Rosenthal vs. Rosenthal two years ago, the dentist’s rep said, “The money awarded to the son, who is a minor, was used to cover his medical bills and the remainder is in a trust, of which the father is not a trustee, and will be used toward his college education."
Jaroslawicz assured us that the Rosenthals are not the only residents of the damaged apartment building who will be suing Lidle’s estate. “Numerous claims are in the process of being filed," he said. “There is no excuse for smacking a plane into an apartment building in the middle of Manhattan."
Hopefully, Melanie Lidle will have enough money left to send Christopher to college.
A dentist is playing hardball with the family of Cory Lidle, charging in a $7 Million lawsuit that careless flying of the tragic Yankee’s plane destroyed his apartment.
Larry Rosenthal and his wife, Sandra, charge in papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that Lidle was “reckless, careless and negligent in causing his plane to strike" the Upper East Side apartment building where the Rosenthals live.
“There’s no excuse for smacking a plane into an apartment building in the middle of Manhattan," said the Rosenthals’ lawyer, David Jaroslawicz.
“They were lucky they weren’t home. If it happened a few hours later, when they and others would have been home from work, it would have been a horror."
Lidle, 34, and his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, were killed in the Oct. 11 crash at 524 E. 72nd St., which the suit says destroyed the Rosenthals’ apartment and all their belongings.
“Everything was trashed by smoke, fire and water," Jaroslawicz said, adding that his clients are still homeless.
NEW YORK — A dentist to the rich and famous has filed a $7 Million lawsuit against the estate of late New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, claiming his home was destroyed when the ballplayer’s small airplane crashed into his apartment building.
Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal says in court papers that after Lidle’s Cirrus SR-20 aircraft crashed into the Manhattan building where he lived with his wife and teenage son, they had to vacate their 43rd-floor apartment.
Rosenthal, whose patients include Donald Trump, Bruce Springsteen and Catherine Zeta-Jones, said his apartment sustained “severe damage, including broken windows, smoke damage, loose bricks and extensive other damage" that forced them out.
The plane, with Lidle and flight instructor Tyler Stanger aboard, hit the Upper East Side building on the 30th floor, 13 floors below Rosenthal’s apartment, on Oct 11. Lidle, 34, and Stanger, 26, were killed in the crash.
The two had taken a midday flight past the Statue of Liberty and north up the East River. They apparently had trouble when they tried to turn and head south.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated, but its report said it reached no final conclusions about the cause of the accident, nor did the agency’s report say who was at the controls when the airplane crashed.
Rosenthal’s lawyer, David Jaroslawicz, said Thursday that “everything was destroyed" in his client’s home and the family has been renting while waiting to return. He said their home is actually three apartments joined to make one apartment that is worth “several Million dollars."
Rosenthal’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan state Supreme Court, names Lidle’s wife, Melanie Lidle, as the defendant in her capacity as administratrix of her late husband’s estate.
A lawyer for her, Robert N. Clarke Jr., issued a statement saying attorneys for the Lidle and Stanger families had filed wrongful-death lawsuits against Cirrus Design Corp., maker of the airplane, in California. He said the lawsuits allege product liability, negligence and other complaints.
A spokeswoman for Cirrus Design didn’t immediately return messages left on her office phone and cell phone on Thursday.
Rosenthal was in the news in January, when he sued best-selling dating-book author Ellen Fein for $5 Million after she called him a quack on the LyingDentist.com and BadDentist.com Web sites. She accused him of ruining her mouth.
The lawsuit accused Fein, author of “The Rules," of defamation, harassment and extortion.
Fein’s lawyer, Ann McGrane, said she planned to file a motion to dismiss Rosenthal’s lawsuit, and she said she was sure it would be granted.
The widow of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle is suing the maker of her husband’s doomed plane, charging that “catastrophic failure" of the craft’s flight control system caused the fatal crash on the upper East Side, court papers show.
The suit, filed in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 22 against Cirrus Design Corp., alleges the manufacturer should have known the plane was unsafe because of design problems that allegedly hinder a pilot’s ability to make tight turns.
Lawyer Todd Macaluso, also a pilot, is seeking unspecified damages on behalf of the wives and families of Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger.
In a separate suit filed this week in New York, a Manhattan dentist-to-the- stars whose condo was damaged when Lidle’s plane exploded into the apartment tower is seeking $7 Million from Lidle’s widow and estate.
Dentist Lawrence Rosenthal, whose clients include Donald Trump, Bruce Springsteen and Catherine Zeta-Jones, claims Lidle was “reckless, careless and negligent."
The California and New York suits appear to be the first two legal actions related to the Oct. 11 crash.
Lidle, 34, and Stanger, 26, were killed when the pitcher’s Cirrus SR20 plowed into the 30th floor of the posh Belaire condominium on E. 72nd St.
The National Transportation Safety Board later said Lidle’s plane exploded into the tower after the pitcher and his instructor failed to take advantage of available air space. They attempted the U-turn in a corridor that was merely 2,100 feet wide.
The plane was making a 180-degree turn over the East River when it burst into apartment 40-ABG, seriously injuring 50-year-old Ilane Benhuri. She underwent several surgeries to treat burns to her back and legs.
“If you’re not an experienced pilot, you don’t belong on the East River with skyscrapers on either side," said Rosenthal’s lawyer David Jaroslawicz.
Rosenthal and his wife were not home at the time of the crash, but the family’s baby-sitter and her child were. Neither was injured.
Rosenthal’s suit names Lidle’s widow, Melanie, as a defendant.
In the California suit, Macaluso claims the crash was caused by an aileron, the plane part that makes tight turns possible.
The part “caused the death of the company’s test pilot on March 23, 1999," Macaluso said.
The suit alleges that other deaths have been caused by the same part, but no specifics were cited in court papers.
Ailerons are small hinged sections on the outboard portion of a wing that work together with a plane’s rudder, according to NASA.
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