A Nyack physician is demanding the return of $550,000 in medical equipment from a former colleague in an Greenburg aesthetics partnership that has since fallen apart.
Laurence C. Miller accused Hyun-Joon Lee and her See Beyond Beauty Inc. of unjust enrichment, in a complaint filed Aug. 2 in Westchester Supreme Court.
He claims that Lee has “repeatedly, clearly and unambiguously” promised to return his equipment but has refused to do so.
Lee did not reply to an email sent to See Beyond Beauty that asked for her side of the story.
She formed See Beyond Beauty in 2021 and operates the “aesthetic medical spa” on Central Park Avenue in the Greenville section of Greenburg. She also has offices in Scarsdale and Greenwich, Connecticut.
Miller formerly operated Westchester Aesthetic Center in Ardsley. In 2022, according to his complaint, he agreed to move medical equipment he owned to Lee’s offices, with the understanding that they would treat patients at her office.
The items include five lasers, a chiller, carboxytherapy machine, centrifuge, facelift equipment and a chair.
But within a few months of agreeing to work together, he says, they disagreed over their business roles and ownership of the equipment.
Miller discontinued the business relationship, according to the complaint, and demanded return of the equipment.
He claims that Lee has acknowledged his ownership and offered to buy some of the equipment. But she has allegedly moved the equipment from her home garage to an office in Greenwich and refused to return it.
Miller’s Manhattan attorney, Paul S. Haberman, argues that Lee continues to benefit from use of the equipment while Miller has lost the ability to either sell it or make use of it.
Miller is asking the court to declare him the equipment owner, direct Lee to return it, and award him $1 million in damages.
In 2020, Miller’s Westchester Aesthetic Center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection “to shed the exorbitant lease payments” for medical lasers and other equipment.
He had misjudged the demand for cosmetic procedures, he stated in a bankruptcy affidavit, and was unable to return the equipment or renegotiate leases totaling about $45,000 a month.
The bankruptcy case was closed in November 2021.
Now Miller works for Pulmonary Medicine Associates at Montefiore Nyack Hospital.
