Director Paul Haggis lost his sexual assault civil trial last year, and now he may lose his apartment.
The company that owns the building in which Haggis’ Soho apartment is located asked the court this week for permission to take the Oscar-winning director to tenant court or foreclose on his property, claiming he is more than $24,000 behind in maintenance payments.
The multimillion-dollar pad is currently the source of a battle between Haggis and publicist Haleigh Breest, who brought the lawsuit that resulted in the Crash director being found liable for sexually assaulting her, putting him on the hook for a $12 million judgment. Breest, who claims Haggis sexually assaulted her after a film premiere in 2013, has asked the court to make Haggis sell the apartment to pay off that debt. She is also seeking proceeds from Haggis’ ex-wife’s sale of an apartment on West Broadway in 2019.
Haggis has entered no filings in the case and appears to be unrepresented in the matter. Breest and Haggis' ex-wife, Deborah Rennard, recently agreed to push back a hearing on the matter from Aug. 9 to late September—which is when the building owner stepped in.
The property management company, Annapurna, said Haggis has not paid maintenance fees since January 2023, aside from two payments of $1,001.00 each, and that his unpaid fees total $24,858.00. If Haggis does not pay promptly, the company said, it will “pursue its remedies for nonpayment of maintenance, whether by a statutory nonpayment proceeding in Civil Landlord-Tenant Court or by foreclosure of its lien pursuant to the UCC.”
Lawyers for the company asked the court to keep the Aug. 9 hearing date to clarify whether it would be able to pursue those remedies under a restraining order issued in the case. They also claimed the company should have first priority on any profits from the sale of the apartment and the approval of any buyers.
Lawyers for Breest shot back Wednesday, noting that the management company had not raised concerns previously despite Haggis being in “substantial default” for eight months. They also claimed the company was given ample notice of the restraining order, which was issued on June 26, but did not oppose it. “Annapurna does not explain its sudden sense of urgency to now foreclose on Mr. Haggis co-op,” Breest’s lawyers wrote.
Lawyers for Breest, Rennard, and Annapurna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Haggis was a 59-year-old millionaire at the time of the alleged assault, having won two Oscars for his work on Crash and Million Dollar Baby. Breest, who was 26, said Haggis invited her back to his place for a drink, forcibly kissed her, and forced himself on top of her. Four other women testified that Haggis had made unwanted sexual passes at them, though none took legal action. Haggis maintained his contact with Breest was consensual, and his attorney dismissed the lawsuit as a “cash grab.”
The jury unanimously sided with Breest, finding Haggis liable on all three counts of rape and sexual abuse and awarding Breest $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages. (The court later awarded her another $2.8 million in attorney’s fees.) At the time, an attorney for Haggis said the director was “financially decimated” and would not be able to pay the award. Haggis said he had already taken out two liens on the Mercer Street apartment to pay his legal bills.
Breest filed suit again in June, claiming Haggis had fraudulently attempted to transfer an interest in the Mercer Street apartment to his ex-wife to avoid having it applied to his judgment. She alleges he also transferred his portion of the proceeds of the sale of the apartment on Broadway to Rennan for similar reasons. The publicist is now asking the court to force the sale of the Mercer Street apartment and deliver her the earnings, along with half the proceeds from the Broadway pad.
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August 04, 2023 at 04:26AM
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Disgraced Director Paul Haggis Might Lose Apartment - The Daily Beast
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