The owners of the Los Angeles house owned by Marilyn Monroe when she died 1962 have filed a lawsuit against the city for belatedly designating it a historic-cultural monument, thus preventing them from demolishing the property.
Courthouse News reports Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, who also own an adjacent property, argued in their lawsuit that Monroe only lived at the home for six months and was mostly a temporary resident there in her final months. They added the 2,300-square-foot Spanish bungalow, which has never been open to the public, cannot be seen from the street and has no historic value.
“For more than 60 years, although keenly aware of the property’s brief association with Ms. Monroe, the city had taken no action to designate the house as a historic monument, until plaintiffs sought to exercise their rights under lawfully issued city permits to demolish the house in 2023,” said Milstein and Bank in their complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court. “All décor associated with her brief tenure at the house has long been stripped by a succession of no less than fourteen owners since her death. And the house and the property have been substantially altered, including major additions to the house and new outbuildings.”
The owners said they purchased the property for more than $8 million and planned to tear down its dilapidated structures. However, in 2023 a local city councilmember, partnering with preservationists and tour operators, successfully lobbied to make the site a historic-cultural monument, thus preventing the owners from demolishing the property without going through an expensive legal process.
“The designation has created public burdens instead of benefits,” the owners added. “The designation and resultant public disturbance have created traffic congestion and community nuisance — on a street not meant to handle excessive traffic of tour buses or trespassers, let alone the actual residents of that street and their guests.”
The plaintiffs are asking the court to affirm their constitutional rights are being violated and grant them the order to proceed with their planned demolition.
