West End Gym Faces Lawsuit for Excessive Noise

CrossFit King of the Beach was slapped with a lawsuit from neighbors who complain that the West End gym’s patrons drop heavy weights and grunt loudly, shaking their walls and otherwise causing a nuisance.

Joseph Hamlet, a financial services adviser with an office next to CrossFit King, Mishoir Murdakhayev, who runs Top Hat barbershop two doors from the gym, and Robert Moore, who lives in a apartment in the same building, jointly filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified punitive damages on April. Named in the suit are the building’s owner Isabella Realty, CrossFit owner Michael Abgarian and the gym’s chiropractor Dr. Sean Pastuch, according to the New York Post.

The suit — which contends that the gym, at 901 W. Beech St., is creating a “private nuisance,” “causing emotional distress” and harming the businesses — states: “The noise and vibrations caused by [CrossFit] have caused excessive, unreasonable and illegal vibrations and noise.”

Murdakhayev said his business suffers because he cannot concentrate from the noise that he hears over his hair dryers from the gym, according to CBS News. “The floor is shaking,” he said.

City officials were called to CrossFit King on April 3 and May 4 and issued $100 violations for breaking noise ordinances for slamming down weights and grunting, according to a follow-up story in the Post. “We’ve gotten a lot of complaints,” said Sgt. Eric Cregeen of the Long Beach Police Department.

Moreover, residents and business owners are concerned about pedestrian safety when trainers routinely take their patrons in large groups on the street to exercise with weights, some running and holding the weights on their heads, both the Post and News 12 report.  

The gym owners and building owner have reportedly declined to comment, and Pastush declined to Patch’s request for comment Friday.

Last October, Pastuch opened in the vacant unit the formerly housed the Treasure Chest thrift store.

* This story was updated at 4:38 p.m. on 5.11.12.