In a memo filed last week, attorneys for Froum called the default notice a “pressure tactic” which amounted to a threat of eviction.
Froum, a dental surgeon whose practice occupies a ground-floor unit at the cooperative, is the sole shareholder whose windows haven’t been replaced. The work, his attorneys argue, would close “an essential surgical facility during the height of the worst pandemic in generations.”
His attorneys estimate that closing his office would cost Froum $500,000 in lost income and other costs.
Attorneys for Froum declined to comment. Attorneys for the co-op did not return a request for comment.
Froum’s office stayed open, as allowed, during New York City’s spring lockdown. From March 16 to June 12, with the city largely shut to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Froum performed 110 emergency surgeries which his lawyers said kept those patients out of badly needed hospital beds. Since then, he’s seen more than 500 patients.