The notion of home as a sanctuary seems to have been upended in a troubling saga unfolding on the Upper East Side. The owners of a rental building have taken legal action against a tenant, demanding over $1.5 million in damages as they seek to evict her for persistent harassment and abusive behavior towards neighbors, passersby, and building staff.
The lawsuit, filed by East 77 Owners, targets Layla Al-Marzooqi, an artist residing in Apartment 1B of the five-story, 10-unit building located at 436 E. 77th St. The court documents, submitted to the New York State Supreme Court, allege that Al-Marzooqi has verbally assaulted fellow tenants both in the hallways and on the sidewalk. Furthermore, she has been accused of screaming for hours on end within her apartment, harassing the superintendent, and posting a menacing sign on her front door.
Matthew Goodman, the building’s managing agent from Eric Goodman Realty, shared with The Post, “She wasn’t always the nicest person to deal with, but I could manage her. It was fine.” However, Goodman noted a significant change in her behavior in April, saying, “something flipped.”
“She wasn’t always the nicest person to deal with but I could deal with her. It was fine,” building managing agent Matthew Goodman with Eric Goodman Realty told The Post.
But in April, “something flipped,” he said.
“It just kept escalating. We were hoping it was a random incident and it would stop. It has been absolute chaos,” he said.
Goodman said the property’s owners — a family — speak through him.
When Eric Goodman Realty began managing No. 436 and the two adjoining buildings, which have separate entrances but all share a laundry room, in 2022, Al-Marzooqi was already living in a studio apartment in one of them, No. 440, Goodman said.
He said he had no problem upgrading Al-Marzooqi — who didn’t respond to requests for comment — to a one-bedroom dwelling in November 2024 in No. 436, because while she was “a little difficult,” she was “never rude or threatening.” Her rent started at $3,000 per month.
But then on April 12, Al-Marzooqi, “directed a stream of obscenities at a neighboring tenant in the hallway,” the suit claims.
“She cursed me out in the hallway for no apparent reason other than my girlfriend’s dog was over and she hates dogs,” the neighbor told The Post. “A few days later, she was screaming all day so [Goodman] said a checkup was warranted by the police. I called, and then after the police left, she posted on her Facebook and called out my apartment number and basically told me to die. From then on, I started noticing her all day screaming. And she had been screaming at people walking their dogs down the street, and just in general.”
The same month, a tenant reported to management that Al-Marzooqi’s four hours of screaming without pause made it so she was “unable to hear her own television, that she was unable to think and that she had become frightened,” court documents say.
And this was not an isolated incident.
In addition, in April, Al-Marzooqi allegedly affixed a placard to her door that reads, “DEATH To you beyond below around above this Apartment Space,” visible to everyone passing through the common hallway.
Also, as seen in the court documents, Al-Marzooqi has posted racist and homophobic comments which identify and tag the plaintiffs “by name and association” and accuse them of criminality on a public Facebook page. She posted on Facebook art depicting a swastika with the Star of David, set against an American flag. Finally, Al-Marzooqi has scared off prospective tenants and existing tenants have asked to break their leases as a result of her conduct, the suit claims.
Tenants have reported fearing for their safety and have made many written complaints to management.
One tenant wrote, “As I was trying to leave the building the tenant was screaming at me, construction workers across the street, basically anyone that crossed her path,” per an email submitted in court documents.
The building terminated Al-Marzooqi’s lease, effective May 14 on the grounds that her “conduct constitutes a nuisance.”
Al-Marzooqi has not moved out, per Goodman.
The owners’ attorney said she intends to start a housing court proceeding on Thursday to get Al-Marzooqi out.