Caterer sues NYU for unpaid services

NYU Medical Center is being sued for $26,000 by a caterer who claims that he wasn't paid for his services at a university fundraiser last year.

Donald Torr, a caterer from Easthampton, N.Y., is seeking compensation for services he provided at a 2005 fund-raising event for the NYU School of Medicine's Mental Illness Prevention Center.

The event, which was held at the home of NYU sophomore and Russian heiress Anna Anisimova in Easthampton, actually lost money for NYU, university officials said.

Torr, who is the owner of The Crow's Nest Restaurant and Inn in Easthampton, said he has "put in a 100-something calls on this already" and that he's still waiting to be paid. He claims that he gave the event planner his bill, but the university never received it.

Medical center spokesperson Pamela McDonnell said NYU was not aware that the caterer had not been paid because the university had only dealt with the event planner who then hired Torr directly and was responsible for paying him.

"We had no contract with the caterer," McDonnell said. "[The event planner was] paid his fee, the caterer's fee and a few thousand more for miscellaneous fees."

She said they were not able to verify if Torr had been paid, but that Dr. Robert Cancro, the chair emeritus of psychiatry will be having a meeting with event planner Jeff Goldstein to look at the problem.

"[The chair] is doing that because he feels a sense of responsibility to see that Mr. Torr is paid for his work," McDonnell said.

She added that the event was held twice but discontinued because it lost money.

This year's fundraiser for the Mental Illness Prevention Center is being held next Wednesday, Oct. 11 at the Waldorf-Astoria on Park Avenue.