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A one-bedroom rental at 436 East 77th Street has become the center of a sprawling civil action, with the building’s ownership accusing a longtime resident of terrorizing the rest of the block through hours-long screaming sessions, hallway confrontations, a death-themed placard fixed to her apartment door, and a Facebook account that publishes what the complaint describes as a relentless catalogue of racist, antisemitic, and homophobic posts naming the landlord and his lawyers.
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The plaintiff, East 77 Owners Co., LLC, is seeking upwards of $1.5 million in damages from artist Layla Al-Marzooqi and looking to push her out of Apartment 1B at the five-story, 10-unit walk-up between First and Second avenues, as reported by the New York Post. The case, filed May 15 in New York State Supreme Court, was brought by attorney Heather A. Ticotin of Long Island-based The Price Law Firm, PLLC.Per the verified complaint, Al-Marzooqi signed her lease at No. 436 on Oct. 17, 2024, after several years living in a studio at the adjoining 440 E. 77th St. — one of three connected buildings managed since 2022 by Eric Goodman Realty Corp., all sharing a common laundry room. Matthew Goodman, the firm’s vice president, told the Post she had been difficult but never threatening before April, when “something flipped” and the building descended into what he called absolute chaos.
The first incident the suit pins to a date is April 12, when Al-Marzooqi allegedly cursed out a neighboring tenant in the hallway — set off, that neighbor told the Post, by the visiting girlfriend’s dog. Two days later, on April 14, she allegedly screamed inside her apartment for “consecutive hours,” prompting a neighbor to call 911. A police report was filed. The neighbor told the Post that after the officers left, Al-Marzooqi went on Facebook, called out the neighbor’s apartment number, and effectively told the neighbor to die.
Other residents have reported comparable episodes. One tenant wrote to management that roughly four hours of nonstop screaming left her unable to hear her own television, unable to think, and frightened. Female residents have stopped feeling safe doing their laundry, the complaint says, because Al-Marzooqi allegedly screams at them on the way to and from the basement. Tenants walking dogs, construction workers across the street, and passersby have all become targets, per the suit, including on one occasion when she allegedly screamed at people while moving a ladder.
The complaint also points to a placard the tenant is alleged to have affixed to her apartment door, visible to anyone walking down the common hallway, that reads, “DEATH To you beyond below around above this Apartment Space.”
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The lawsuit reserves its sharpest language for what the plaintiffs say has been happening on Facebook, where Al-Marzooqi posts under the handle “Layla Al-Marzooqi (Von Nachtblau).” The lawsuit states that “The cover image of the Defendant’s Facebook profile depicts, prominently, a swastika fused with the Star of David, set against an American flag” (that image is still live but as of writing, it is not the primary cover image on her page). The posts themselves are described as a continuous stream of slurs that include “anti-Black, anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-Persian, anti-Irish, anti-French, anti-Asian, and anti-LGBTQ epithets,” with the landlord and counsel tagged or named by association and accused of crimes ranging from fraud to theft.The building’s superintendent, a Goodman Realty employee, has come in for particular abuse, the suit alleges. By written message, Al-Marzooqi is said to have threatened his livelihood, ordered him to “find another field of work,” and accused him of stealing space in the rear courtyard. She allegedly damaged plantings back there as well, then blamed the damage on the super in posts the complaint describes as derogatory and racially charged.
East 77 Owners terminated Al-Marzooqi’s lease by notice dated May 1, effective May 14, citing nuisance. The complaint, verified by Goodman the next day, is blunt about what has happened since: “The placard remains on the door. The posts remain online. The screaming continues.”
The suit brings four causes of action. Libel per se carries the largest dollar demand at no less than $1 million, on the theory that the Facebook posts have exposed the plaintiffs to “public contempt, ridicule, aversion, and disgrace.” A tortious interference claim seeks at least $500,000, citing existing tenants asking to break leases and prospective renters walking away from showings. A third cause of action asks for a permanent injunction that would bar Al-Marzooqi from further harassment, compel her to remove the Facebook posts, and force the “DEATH” placard off her door. The fourth seeks at least $25,000 in attorneys’ fees under paragraph 21(c) of the lease.
Threaded through all of it is the argument Ticotin makes most directly in the request for an injunction — that this is not a case money alone can resolve. “Money damages, standing alone, will not stop the screaming,” the complaint reads. “They will not take the placard down. They will not remove the posts from the internet.”
Eviction proceedings in housing court are expected to follow.
We’ve reached out to Al-Marzooqi for comment.
