A couple from Oregon, have been accused of “squatting” a two-bed, ritzy $1million apartment in New York City’s Upper West Side after the tenant died, according to court documents.
Sheila Upjohn, 72, of Salem, and her husband Donald Upjohn, 81, have allegedly been living in the large 1,100-square-foot apartment since April 2022.
Mary Etta Tanuma, 98, was the previous tenant of the ninth-floor pad on 46 West 95th Street. She died the same month Upjohn allegedly moved in.
Upjohn later moved her husband, disbarred Oregon attorney Donald Upjohn, 81, in with her, according to the litigation.
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The landlord said the Oregon couple were not related to Tanuma and have no right to the home.
The pair are living there “without any right to do so,” the landlord alleged, according to court documents.
However, a relative said Sheila and Etta were very close and basically family.
Michelle Cassidy, Upjohn’s sister, said: “Sheila cared for [Tanuma] for two years at home.
“She brought her out of a nursing home during Covid.. she took care of [Tanuma] like she was her mother.”
Cassidy, who also lived in the building next door to Tanuma for many years, said she introduced the two women who struck up a friendship.
She said her sister, a nurse who moved east for school and work, had lived on and off with Tanuma since 1997.
“This is legit, a real thing. This isn’t my sister moving in with her in the last year of her life to try to grift her,” Cassidy claimed.
Cassidy also claimed that Tanuma had no other family and changed her will in 2017 to leave everything to Upjohn.
Manhattan Surrogate Court papers show that the late Tanuma described Upjohn as “my friend” in her will.
She also left her furniture, paintings, jewellery, furnishings and household goods in the will.
After Tanuma’s death, Upjohn sent the landlord a letter claiming she was “entitled to succeed” Tanuma’s residency in the apartment, the landlord said in the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit papers.
Tanuma had no spouse or kids and had lived in the apartment since the 1960s. She was reportedly paying just $1,800 a month — less than half the market rate.
The landlord claimed that the Upjohns had made a “bold attempt to game the system and take advantage of the Rent Control Law for their own personal benefit.”
He demanded that the Upjohns fork over $3,500 for every month they’ve lived there and wants a judge to force the couple out of the apartment and to pay for “unlawfully” occupying the place.
“New York City property owners face a continual challenge from tenants who unlawfully occupy apartments and refuse to vacate,” said the landlord’s lawyer, Michael A. Pensabene. “This is a clear attempt to violate the property owners’ rights and we are confident that we will prevail in court.”
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