CLEVELAND — Embattled former MetroHealth CEO Akram Boutros has dropped his wrongful termination lawsuit against the hospital system, at least for now.
According to Signal Cleveland's Mark Naymik, Boutros' attorneys filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the multi-million-dollar complaint due to "a serious health issue that requires intensive treatment, including week-long inpatient admissions every three weeks." However, Boutros plans to file the suit again "as soon as his treatment is completed."
Cuyahoga County court records confirm the motion for dismissal. A jury trial in the civil case had been slated to begin on Feb. 12 of next year.
Boutros, once hailed for his efforts to expand MetroHealth's services across Northeast Ohio, was unceremoniously fired in November of 2022 just weeks before his planned retirement. The hospital's board accused him of authorizing more than $1.9 million in bonus payments to himself without disclosing those transactions.
Though he later admitted to the bonuses and repaid the money, Boutros told 3News he believed they were in line with company policy and denied any wrongdoing. Instead, he called his dismissal a case of "pure retaliation," claiming he had acted as a "whistleblower" when the board spoke of candidates for his replacement outside of public meeting times.
Boutros wound up filing a number of lawsuits against Metro, seeking tens of millions in damages for things like breach of contract, defamation, wrongful termination, and civil liability for criminal acts related to retaliation and intimidation. Some of these claims have since been dismissed in court, although the largest lawsuit as a whole remained active until today.