Evangelical Lutheran Church sues pastor over sale of ‘parsonage’ apartment

The building

The Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has sued one of its pastors, Gregory Fryer, for signing a contract to sell a $2 million Manhattan cooperative apartment he was given to use for about three decades now.

According to the synod, it desires that the transfer of the title in that sale be blocked by the Supreme Court. This will help to avoid untold damage.

The complaint contends that Fryer started living in the pre-war apartment, unit 7C at 108 East 82 Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, in 1993. He has been the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church since 1991.

A real estate listing shows that the apartment has three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a formal dining room, “custom made built-in bookshelves, high beamed ceilings and pristine hardwood floors.”

The Synod filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of New York on March 22 arguing that “Money damages alone will not repair the damage that would be done if defendants transfer title to the apartment.”

The defendants in the lawsuit are Pastor Gregory Fryer; the cooperative identified as East 82 Corporation; Douglas Elliman Property Management, the residential real estate firm; Brown Harris Stevens, and John Doe and Jane Doe.

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