His Health Hoax History

Jim Couri holds up the LA Times to "prove" he is in the hospital.

          
For nearly 30 years, Couri has claimed poor health to avoid justice. In 1981, for example, Couri used poor health to avoid jail time for his felony convictions.   Couri's lawyers argued,

"[Couri’s] [p]oor health alone may not suffice to make incarceration inappropriate [for his three felony pleas]. But in a case such as this, where other factors also point toward probation as appropriate sentence, the delicacy of a defendant's health and the possible complications of damage to that health that incarceration could impose are part of the total picture."

          More recently, on August 15, 2005, Mr. Couri's personal cardiologist said he was 90 to 95% certain that Couri did not have a heart attack at the end of jury selection in the Pavia v. Couri litigation. Couri's alleged heart attack resulted in a mistrial, the disbanding of the jury, and a delay in the proceedings.

          In late 2006 and early 2007, when the Pavia v. Couri jury trial was ready to resume, Couri claimed he was too sick to stand trial, but refused to provide medical authorizations or to make his doctors available to the court by telephone.  He finally produced medical authorizations but subsequently instructed his doctors to withhold the medical records from the Clerk of Court.  In May 2007, Couri finally and fully participated in a three-week jury trial without incident, and lost hands down. (Couri's wife Marlene was represented during the jury trial by Couri's long time lawyer, Jon Paul Robbins, Esq.)

          On February 28, 2008, New York’s Appellate Division, First Department, in a separate and unrelated legal proceeding, dismissed Couri's $24 million claim against John Siebert as a sanction for not complying with four (4) court orders directing Couri to provide tax authorizations so that Dr. Siebert's counsel could determine whether Couri properly accounted for the $8M paid to Couri and corporations owned or controlled by Couri. At the time, the Appellate Court noted in its decision that Couri’s malignant melanoma was not supported by the medical documents before the court.

"We find the medical excuse plaintiff proffered for his behavior to be uncompelling. The extent to which he was incapacitated by treatment for a malignant melanoma is not discernible from the record."

          Most recently, Couri has claimed to be too sick to travel from California to New York to participate in discovery let alone stand trial in an $8M fraud case against him. On November 11, 2009, Justice Michael D. Stallman ordered Couri to provide medical authorizations within 45 days and to appear for a medical examination in California to verify his medical claims.

          Despite the court order, Couri refused to produce the medical authorizations. Couri's contumacious behavior caused John Siebert's attorney to move to strike Couri's defense and to enter judgment against him for $8M. The motion is pending.

          Today, Mr. Couri continues to claim that he is terminally ill, yet he finds the time in 2010 to file ten or more voluminous and repetitive court motions and to rapaciously post and tweet heinous rants against the courts, lawyers and anyone else he claims to have wronged him.  He also claims to be publishing a book.  Good trick for someone allegedly dying of cancer.