By Jeff Lipton
Ronald Eisenberg, who makes his home in the four-unit building at 888 Woodmere Place, accused Congregation Aish Kodesh of negligence and recklessness when the two-story religious building was constructed just north of the Woodmere LIRR station, at the corner of Woodmere Boulevard and Woodmere Place, and its parking lot was built at 882 Woodmere Place. Also named as defendants in the lawsuit were Grandview Contracting Corp of Bayshore and GII Construction Co. of Wantagh.
The congregation purchased the property and demolished single-family homes and other structures on the properties adjacent to Eisenberg's home. According to the lawsuit, which was recently filed in Nassau County Supreme Court, during construction there was damage done to Eisenberg's home, including cracks in the walls, ceilings and floors as well as damage to the foundations, partitions, windows, doors, plumbing, furnace, steps, driveway and landscaping. The property now requires permanent structural and other repairs to restore the soundness of the building and has resulted in decreased property value of the home, the lawsuit alleges.
The defendants were careless, negligent and reckless in demolishing, excavating and constructing the synagogue, the lawsuit says. In addition, they failed to properly supervise and inspect the work. Eisenberg said the work, which lasted about two years, also killed three trees on his property, as well as hedges.
During the first few months of construction in particular, the vibrations were so intense that they blew out Eisenberg's oil burner, loosened tiles in three of the home's four bathrooms and caused the earth to shift under the home. The vibrations were so bad that one of my tenants on the second floor was bounced out of bed, he said. It's really unbelievable.
I have tremendous damage to my home that has to be repaired, said Eisenberg, who has lived in the home since 1968 and whose family has owned the property since the 1940s. He said he paid $20,000 in out-of-pocket costs to do emergency repairs to his building.
Eisenberg said he has brought his complaints to the synagogue's leadership several times to try to settle the matter, but they ignored his requests. They basically told me to get lost, he said. As a result, he filed the lawsuit as a last resort, he said, adding that he had no objections to the creation of a synagogue in his neighborhood.
During excavation, a very large pit was created and remained open for nearly a year, according to the suit, which alleges that the defendants failed to properly brace or shore up the excavated areas to prevent against sidewalk collapse or cave-ins.
Eisenberg's attorney, David Sutton of Garden City, said the defendants have refused to accept any responsibility for the damage, which leaves them no option but to file suit. [Eisenberg] really has serious extensive structural damage to his home, cracks in the foundation, in the walls and the floors. The cracks are only getting worse, they are getting larger and deeper. The cost of the repairs are increasing and the defendants are only ignoring the problem they created.
Sutton said the workers decided to break up the concrete by dropping it on other concrete.
He described the leadership of the congregation as very arrogant and insensitive toward the neighbors. A religious organization should know better. We think the temple as well as the other defendants should accept responsibility for what they did.
He said the civil case should go to trial in about 12 months.
Elliot Ganz, president of the congregation's board of trustees, said he did not want to comment on the lawsuit or the accusations made by Eisenberg. Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, spiritual leader of the synagogue, also did not comment. Grandview Contracting and GII Construction would not return phone calls.
