Lawyer Chris Murphy accuses former landlord of mocking him in court
Lawyer to the stars Chris Murphy has blasted his former landlord from the dock, accusing her of “pulling faces” at him while he was giving evidence.
Police & Courts
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A civil hearing was stalled twice this morning when lawyer Chris Murphy accused his former landlord - who he claims owes him more than $160,000 in costs - of mocking him and pulling faces from the public gallery.
“I have a problem with the female defendant in this manner and the gestures she is performing towards me,” the 72-yr-old told the District Court while giving evidence from the dock.
“That woman is making faces at me again - can you control that woman?”
He was referencing Ilana Lewkovitz, who with her husband George, are being sued by Mr Murphy who claims their multimillion-dollar Bellevue Hill rental was uninhabitable and covered in mould.
The Lewkovitz’ in turn sued Mr Murphy - who has represented a slew of celebrity clients - for refusing to pay more than $40,000 rent.
After the morning tea break, Mr Murphy again complained about Ms Lewkovitz.
“She’s laughing when I give evidence. Could she move, perhaps?” he asked.
Ms Lewkovitz retorted, she would not be able to hear if she was moved.
Judge John Hatzistergos asked Ms Lewkovitz to “refrain” from using gestures: “Could people conduct themselves appropriately please and not be of distraction. I would ask you to refrain from any gestures, not that I saw you do any.”
Mr Murphy claims to have lost a lavish Persian rug, 40 pieces of art including painted portraits of himself and a painting his six-yr-old son made which was “commended in the Archibald Prize”, the court heard.
He said a Harley Davidson leather jacket he bought in Paris, a jacket from New York, expensive furniture and a bookcase was also ruined by mould contamination at the Rivers St property he lived at between August 2013 and July 2017.
The Lewkovitz’s barrister Adrian Maroya disputed the damage costs sought by Mr Murphy’s lawyers in an email sent on Monday night.
Mr Hatzistergos said the defence had since 2019 to dispute the report.
“There’s issues that still need to be resolved. This matter has been in a hearing once before. I don’t know why you couldn’t have asked previously?” he asked.
“It’s been in for a Tribunal. I’m conscious of costs.”
Mr Murphy’s barrister Derek Hand agreed to send additional documents on Wednesday morning to the defence outlining costs sought.
Mr Murphy told the court on Tuesday while giving evidence he filmed a video of water leaking from the kitchen ceiling in March 2017.
He told the court he was advised to move his family upstairs and put a ‘Don’t Enter’ sign on the bottom level of the home due to mould.
“I went (to the bottom floor) out of necessity and would wear a mask,” Mr Murphy said.
He told the court five mould experts were employed by the Lewkovitz’s - but he was not allowed to see the reports.
“(Ms Lewkovitz) refused to give me the reports so I wouldn't know the dangers I was living in with the mould,” Mr Murphy said.
The results would have made him “extremely afraid for his children’s lives”, he told the court.
In cross-examination Mr Maroya put to Mr Murphy that his leather jackets could have become mouldy because he did not let them dry properly when he “hosed them down”.
But Mr Murphy said he hung the clothes outside for 8-10 hours and he made sure they were “very dry”, before bringing them inside.
Murphy filed a complaint against former Bondi surgeon George Lewkovitz and his wife at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2017, before they filed a cross claim for unpaid rent.
Mr Murphy paid $10,800 a month to live in the five bedroom home he shared with his estranged wife Agnes Bruck and their children.
He now lives in a Bondi rental.
The expected three-day hearing is due to hear from four experts including a mediation expert, a toxicologist, an art conservationist and an engineer.
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