LOS ANGELES : Ex-Landlord Apologizes, Drops Suit Against Arnolds

Roseanne and Tom Arnold’s ex-landlord has apologized and dropped his lawsuit claiming the couple trashed his $3.5-million Benedict Canyon mansion while they rented it for 10 months beginning in June, 1989. “The claims made against you were baseless,” Spencer Proffer wrote in a May 29 letter to the Arnolds, and the lawsuit was dismissed. Proffer also agreed to pay $66,000 to the Arnolds “as a token of our desire to end this litigation.”

In a statement released Monday, the Arnolds said they were “hurt and humiliated . . . to be wrongly and maliciously depicted as slobs that lived in a pigsty and damaged someone else’s house. This settlement was a complete vindication.”

Proffer, a CBS Records executive, sued the couple for $171,000 to cover broken windows, damaged floors, torn and stained wall coverings and upholstery, broken furniture, a scuffed tennis court and a dented gate. Proffer’s attorney, Nathan B. Hoffman, was not available for comment, his secretary said.