Sherilyn Fenn’s ex-landlords will hire a private investigator to serve the former “Twin Peaks” star with court papers demanding the actress testify in court about her alleged failure to pay a $45,000 debt from eight years ago, their lawyer says.
Carolyn Dye, an attorney for Sumie Mishima and Leslie Militzok, filed documents in Los Angeles Superior Court asking Judge Mark Borenstein for a three-month delay in Friday’s scheduled judgment-debtor examination hearing so that Fenn can be located and formally given notice of the new hearing date.
“Plaintiffs have identified a private investigator who will attempt to identify a new address and provide a stakeout,” Dye states in court papers filed Monday.
Dye further states in the documents that she believes Fenn can afford to pay the money the attorney’s clients obtained in a judgment against the actress in September 2007.
“Fenn is a working actor and is believe to have ongoing income which should be available to pay her creditors,” Dye states in her court papers.
According to the suit filed in September 2006, Fenn and the plaintiffs reached an agreement in July 2003 for the actress to lease a home they owned on Laurelmont Drive and signed a six-month extension in June 2006 at $3,800 a month.
The landlords alleged that Fenn moved out in September 2006 and failed to pay $15,200 still due under the contract extension, as well as thousands of dollars more in overdue rent and late fees.
They also claimed she caused more than $18,100 damage to the home in what her landlords’ court papers maintained was a repeat of her behavior at a property she previously rented.
In a declaration filed with the court in February 2007, Fenn talked about dealing with what she called a “faltering career” that led to a bankruptcy filing in 2003, the ordeal of caring for her teenage son, a special needs student, and a difficult pregnancy at age 42.
She claimed she signed the six-month rent extension under pressure from the landlords and told them in August 2006 that she would be leaving.
In her own declaration, Militzok said she had trouble renting the home after Fenn left because of strong odors and “clutter everywhere.”
Fenn, now 50, was among the most recognizable actresses on television in the early 1990s with her role as a high school femme fatale on “Twin Peaks.” She also appeared on the CW Network’s “Gilmore Girls” and the quickly-canceled crime drama “Smith.”
— Wire reports