Judge raps Connery, neighbors over lawsuits

Two sides have been battling over renovations to New York town house

Chris Pizzello / AP file	Former James Bond actor Sean Connery has been in an ongoing feud over a shared, landmarked Upper East Side town house in New York.

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updated 11:46 a.m. ET Dec. 27, 2007

NEW YORK - The legal dispute between Sean Connery and his downstairs neighbors has a fed-up judge telling both sides to cool it.

In court papers, Burton Sultan calls his neighbor Connery, 77, the antithesis of the suave secret agent he played in numerous James Bond films, branding him “a bully who ignores norms of neighborliness and decency” in the town house they share.

Connery and his wife claim the Sultan family’s complaints have delayed needed repairs to the roof, imperiling the Connerys and raising the repair costs.

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In a decision made public Wednesday, State Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman tossed out many of the Sultans’ claims but slammed the Connerys for what she called their “blunderbuss” legal salvos.

She barred both sides from filing any more lawsuits without her permission, saying they “have engaged in a ’slash and burn’ litigation strategy.”

Connery’s lawyer and publicist and Sultan’s lawyer did not immediately return telephone messages Thursday.

The sides have clashed repeatedly over the Connerys’ years-long renovations to their part of the six-story, landmarked 1869 town house. The Sultans claim the renovations have subjected them to noise, fumes, leaks and rats, ruining their collection of antique wicker furniture.

Connery played the British secret agent known as 007 in 1962’s “Dr. No.” He reprised the role in such Bond classics as “From Russia With Love,” “Goldfinger” and “You Only Live Twice.”