Divided New York Divorce: “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!”
Property division is often a major element of the divorce process, but a Brooklyn couple going through a bitter divorce has taken this concept to a whole new level. After Chana and Simon Taub each refused to move out of the house they had shared for 18 years, a judge ordered the construction of a wall running down the middle of the house in order to prevent the couple from sparring during their New York divorce.
According to a story in the Baltimore Sun, Chana Taub said she filed for divorce after her husband physically and mentally abused her. Simon Taub denied those charges, but was forced out of the house after Chana filed a police report alleging that he beat her. Simon asked a judge that he be allowed to move back in the house, and sought permission to build a dividing wall. The judge agreed, and Simon spent $500 to have the wall constructed. Chana Taub appealed the judge’s decision and lost. With interested neighbors gathering outside the three-story Taub residence, the wall was constructed in December of last year.
According to the story, the sand-colored wall on the first floor separates the living room from a spiral staircase which leads to the second and third floors. A mahogany door barricaded with plywood splits the second floor in half. 57-year-old Chana Taub now considers the garage, front door, spiral staircase, second-floor kitchen, four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a third-floor nursery as her part of the home. 58-year-old Simon Taub was left with the first-floor living room and bathroom and a second-floor dining room which he initially could only get to by walking up his neighbor’s outside stairs, hopping over a railing on his balcony and climbing through a window! Simon later paid construction workers to build a spiral staircase from his living room to the second-floor dining room.
The couple also owns property down the block, which Simon will often use during the week, according to Chana. She added in the story that Simon lives in the divided house on the weekends and makes a lot of noise. Simon Taub said that he is going to stay in the house until Chana packs her bags and moves out. Local media have dubbed this bizarre New York divorce as Brooklyn’s “War of the Roses” after a 1989 movie in which a divorced couple fights to their deaths over their house and possessions.
