A homeowner who claims that a New Paltz contractor cheated her and many other clients and should not be allowed to use bankruptcy to avoid paying creditors.
Marisa Beeney, of Manhattan, is demanding as much as $1 million from David Ryan Friedlander, in a complaint filed on April 17 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Poughkeepsie.
She claims that Friedlander induced her into hiring him by using an alias “to hide his true identity and to prevent (her) from learning of the prior civil and criminal actions against him and his companies.”
Friedlander petitioned for Chapter 7 liquidation on Jan. 22, declaring $633,600 in assets and nearly $7.3 million in liabilities.
In 2021, Beeney bought a 5-bedroom house on a 34.5-acre site in Gardiner, near New Paltz, Ulster County, for $1.6 million. In 2022, she began looking for a contractor to renovate the house, and a bid submitted by Friedlander’s Prime Management LLC looked attractive.
Beeney checked his credentials and experience on LinkedIn and Thumbtack and toured a home with him to see an example of his work.
She was impressed, according to her complaint, and in September 2022 hired Prime Management to renovate the house for $835,940.
As far as she knew, she was dealing with “David Ryan.” But the online profiles were fictitious, and even the house she toured with “Dave” was not one of his projects.
Friedlander and companies he operated, such as Casa Builders Inc., had been sued at least 18 times since 2018, according to her complaint, in Dutchess, Kings, Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster counties on accusations of negligence, fraud, defective work, and failure to pay for materials.
The lawsuits were a “severe black mark on his record” and an “impediment to his efforts to market his services,” Beeney says, so Friedlander concealed his full name and the names of businesses that had been sued.
The lawsuit does not say when Beeney discovered David Ryan’s real name or his record as a contractor.
But she alleges that Friedlander submitted payment requisitions for work that had not been completed, billed for change orders that had not been approved, and double-billed for the same work.
She advanced payments totaling $226,705 for steel, a fireplace, and a generator that were never delivered, the complaint states. Measurements for windows were incorrect and the roof had to be raised to accommodate them.
The job was supposed to be completed in 90 days, according to the complaint, but Beeney terminated the contract for cause 17 months after signing the deal.
Had she known Ryan’s true identity and the multiple lawsuits brought against Friedlander and his companies, the complaint states, she would not have hired him.
She is asking bankruptcy court to declare that Friedlander’s debts may not be discharged because he “engaged in a complex scheme to defraud” and avoid being discovered. She is asking for up to $1 million for repairing and completing the project.
Friedlander’s bankruptcy attorney, Rachel S. Blumenfeld, Brooklyn, did not reply to a message asking for Friedlander’s side of the story.
