Elizabeth Hirschhorn serial squatter alleged to have filed bogus personal injury lawsuit following 2017 car accident amid ongoing instances of ‘bad faith’ litigation
A new report has revealed that the recent antics of Airbnb serial squatter, Elizabeth Hirschhorn, 55, may be just the tip of the iceberg following first hand accounts revealing the Harvard educated grifter also launching a bogus personal injury lawsuit.
Hirschhorn, who rose to tabloid prominence earlier this week following her courtroom battle with Sascha Jovanovic, 61, whose Brentwood, Los Angeles home, Hirschhorn has squatted for over 540 days and refuses to leave unless paid out $100K is now alleged to have been embroiled in an ongoing bogus personal injury litigation.
First hand accounts claim Hirschhorn suing a Los Angeles couple over a car accident two years after it happened – only to be accused of lying about the extent of her injuries and having no facts to back up her case.
Serial litigant
The case according to the dailymail was filed in June 2019 following a July 2017 traffic accident, that overlapped two other cases Hirschhorn was already embroiled in – one in LA over an unpaid $19,000 AMEX credit card bill, and a second in Oakland which saw her refuse to leave a two-bedroom cottage she had sublet.
Court papers showed that, as similarly in the Jovanovic case, Hirschhorn citing ill-health and Covid-19 regulations as reasons for her staying put in the Oakland property – despite paying no rent to owners Brian and Gordon Bishop.
Asked about the unwanted tenant, Brian Bishop, 58, of Albany, California, acknowledged his legal fight with Hirschhorn but said the LA case ‘resonated’ with him but he could not comment on what the 55-year-old received in exchange for leaving his $2.5million cottage.
A judge in the Amex case has ruled Hirschhorn is on the hook for a $19,000 bill plus costs after an LA judge decided she was responsible for the full amount on the credit card, despite her protestations.
The car crash case, was eventually thrown out in March 2022, despite multiple rounds of discovery and motions galore filed by Hirschhorn.
Former screenplay writer
Hirschhorn had claimed that she was hit by a vehicle driven by married couple Jacqueline McMahon and Timothy Hayes at a Los Angeles intersection in July 2017.
In the legal papers, Hirschhorn blames the crash entirely on the couple, accusing them of negligence and saying she faced significant medical bills and was left unable to work as a result.
Hirschhorn describes herself as a writer and film producer on her Linkedin page. But she has barely worked since 2002 – with her IMDB page showing her last credit was a writing gig for five episodes of The Osbournes that year.
She demanded damages from McMahon and Hayes – only for them to say she had failed to provide any facts to back up her case.
In a response cited by the dailymail, the couple said they ‘specifically deny’ that plaintiff was damaged in the amount alleged, or in any other amount, or in any manner whatsoever, by any act or omission on the part of these answering defendants.’
Hirschhorn was still fighting the case and the AMEX bill while living in Jovanovic’s guesthouse rent-free and refusing to leave.
Amex credit card woes and new legal motion
The AMEX case, which was initially filed in Oakland before being moved to Los Angeles, also saw Hirschhorn countersue – claiming the credit card company had not reimbursed her for a series of false charges made by a relocation company and that therefore, she was not liable.
In the end, the case was settled after more than two years of wrangling in April with Hirschhorn forced to admit that she is on the hook for $19,037.96 plus costs and ordered to repay the money in installments of $541.67 per month.
The serial squatter and alleged professional grifter is now facing a further legal fight after Jovanovic’s lawyer, Sebastian Rucci, pledged to file a fresh appeal in light of previously undisclosed revelations relating to the Oakland and AMEX cases as evidence of Hirschhorn acting in ‘bad faith’.
Hirschhorn’s lawyer, Colin Walshok, has since accused Jovanovic of harassment and insisted that the two had agreed on a longer tenancy – despite Rucci claiming no documents existing to prove such assertions.
Told Walshok: ‘Ruthless unhinged landlord Jovanovic is spreading vicious fake news stories about tenant Hirschhorn to mislead the public about the many laws he broke.
‘This is a malicious smear campaign about a tenant who did not do the things Jovanovic is telling the public she did.’
Adding, ‘Jovanovic is making up elaborate false stories, false facts and false documents. He has intentionally not disclosed that he agreed to a long-term lease with the tenant outside of the Airbnb platform.’
It remains unclear when the new motion will make its way in front a judge as Hirschhorn continues to live rent free at the Brentwood residence, as some have come to wonder whether the alleged Harvard grifter is now writing a blockbuster screenplay canvasing her own ‘very sensational’ life. Indeed!
