World Trade Centre (WTC) leaseholder Larry Silverstein narrowly avoided being barred from his own court case this morning (AEDT) after the judge hearing his dispute with insurers found he was not in contempt of court, despite having an excuse that was “not credible”.

Mr Silverstein, who is battling a consortium of insurers in a complex case over payment for the loss of the WTC on September 11 2001, had been barred from the court while the judge considered what to do about him making comments on the case to the media in defiance of a court order.

Mr Silverstein says he thought the judge’s gag order had been lifted. He said last week at a ceremony near the WTC that he is trying to get the insurers “to fulfill the responsibilities that we paid for when we paid the premiums on the policies. Instead of getting insurance we’ve got ourselves a massive amount of litigation.”

The Swiss Re-led insurers, who say they owe Mr Silverstein half the $9.7 billion-plus he is claiming, haven’t been slow in using the opportunity to get in a few well-aimed licks of their own. Their court filing on the matter included the statement: “It is clear that the insureds are not to assert that a verdict against the insurers will promote the rebuilding of the WTC, and the insurers are not to assert that Mr Silverstein is a greedy real estate developer attempting to leverage a human and national tragedy into a personal financial windfall.”

US District Court judge Michael Mukasey was obviously not impressed with Mr Silverstein’s protestations of innocence. Calling his excuse “contradictory and not credible”, he nevertheless accepted Mr Silverstein’s plea that any contempt finding would prejudice the jury against him, saying the comments “didn’t have a ruinous effect on the jury”.