Dentist Drilling Lidle Estate
MELANIE Lidle lost her husband last Oct. 11 when Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle crashed his plane into 524 E. 72nd St. Christopher Lidle, 6, lost his father.
But celebrity dentist Dr. Larry Rosenthal and his wife, Sandra, say they lost their clothes and furniture when the plane struck the high- rise building 13 floors below their 43rd floor apartment - and they want Lidle's estate to pay for them.
"A wing of the airplane went through their window," their lawyer, David Jaroslawicz, explained to Page Six.
Rosenthal - who is as expert at extracting cash from insurance companies as he is with impacted molars - has sued Lidle's estate for $5 million in compensatory damages, plus $2 million for their "mental anguish and distress."
While the Rosenthals' suffering might be minimal compared to that of Lidle's widow and her grieving little boy, Jaroslawicz said, "There's the nuisance of being thrown out of your apartment, having to go out and buy clothes. It's an inconvenience."
The lawyer stressed that the Rosenthals' payoff wouldn't come from Lidle's survivors, but from an insurance company, just like the $85,000 Rosenthal collected after he sued himself in 2003. Rosenthal - whose patients have included Donald Trump, Bruce Springsteen, Christie Brinkley and Catherine Zeta-Jones - was driving his Vespa in the Hamptons that summer when his son, Eric, then 11, fell off the back of the scooter and broke his wrist.
The dutiful father hired a lawyer so his son could sue the driver - himself. When we broke the story of Rosenthal vs. Rosenthal two years ago, the dentist's rep said, "The money awarded to the son, who is a minor, was used to cover his medical bills and the remainder is in a trust, of which the father is not a trustee, and will be used toward his college education."
Jaroslawicz assured us that the Rosenthals are not the only residents of the damaged apartment building who will be suing Lidle's estate. "Numerous claims are in the process of being filed," he said. "There is no excuse for smacking a plane into an apartment building in the middle of Manhattan."
Hopefully, Melanie Lidle will have enough money left to send Christopher to college.