A lawsuit by a housekeeper who said she was maimed by Leona Helmsley’s dog Trouble has no legal bite, a judge has ruled.
In a decision released yesterday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Marylin Diamond dismissed Zamfira Sfara’s lawsuit against the so called “Queen of Mean,” finding it “without merit.”
“I’m just shocked. I don’t know what to say,” Sfara, 45, told The Post, adding she’s considering an appeal.
A spokesman for Helmsley, Howard Rubenstein, said his client was “gratified” by the decision.
Sfara went to work for Helmsley as her housekeeper at the Park Lane Hotel in September 2004 – but it was only
after she started work that she was told about Trouble. Sfara had to feed the dog three times a day and walk and bathe her.
Sfara’s son, Remus Pop, said the feeding was hardest part, because Trouble wouldn’t eat from a bowl – the
pugnacious pooch would eat her gourmet meals only if they were hand-fed to her.
Sfara contended the dog’s bites touched off a condition called reflex sympathetic dystrophy, which sends pain shooting up her arm and into her back and neck, requiring medication and physical therapy.
Diamond, however, ruled Sfara can’t sue Helmsley personally because both the housekeeper and the hotelier “were acting within the scope of their employment” when Sfara got injured, and therefore Sfara is entitled only to what she gets from worker’s compensation.