Suit Over Inheritance in the Perelman Family Nears Its End in Court

A messy family legal brawl involving the daughter of the financier Ronald O. Perelman is entering its final stages in a New Jersey court.

On Monday, James Cohen, the head of the newspaper and magazine wholesaler Hudson Media, took the stand for the first time in a courtroom in Hackensack, N.J. Mr. Cohen has been accused by his niece, Samantha Perelman, of manipulating his ailing father to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars out of her inheritance.

Ms. Perelman is the daughter of Mr. Perelman and Claudia Cohen, a former Page Six columnist for The New York Post, who died in 2007. Ms. Cohen’s father, Robert B. Cohen, founded Hudson Media, and Ms. Perelman claims that her mother’s share of Robert Cohen’s estate would have been worth roughly $700 million had her uncle not exerted “undue influence” over her grandfather.

Robert Cohen, who died in 2012, had progressive supranuclear palsy, which made it difficult for him to speak, walk and even blink toward the end of his life. At times, his words were no more than grunts.

In a lawsuit filed in 2012, Ms. Perelman contended that James Cohen took advantage of his father’s illness to cut Ms. Cohen, and ultimately Ms. Perelman, out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Ms. Perelman wants the court to uphold a will from 2004, which was more generous to her mother, and her.

During more than four hours of questioning by his lawyer on Monday, Mr. Cohen emphasized his close relationship with his father, and attested to Robert Cohen’s cognitive ability and intellect, even toward the end. When describing Robert Cohen’s declining health, Mr. Cohen listed only his father’s physical ailments, describing him as a “proud” man who would not want to walk with a cane or use a wheelchair.

“One of the reasons I went into my father’s business was because my father was probably the smartest guy I had ever met,” Mr. Cohen, the last witness in a civil trial that has dragged on since September, said on Monday. “He was an exciting, dynamic businessman.”

But lawyers for Ms. Perelman contend it was that very closeness that allowed Mr. Cohen to prey on his father’s declining mental faculties. They will start questioning Mr. Cohen on Tuesday.

Lawyers for Mr. Cohen have tried to paint Ms. Perelman as an insensitive, spoiled girl who never paid much attention to her grandfather, a description that makes Ms. Perelman’s side bristle.

On Monday, they sought to portray Mr. Cohen as the dutiful son. Mr. Cohen talked about his first job with Hudson, in the returns department at age 15, and repeatedly mentioned the regular lunches he had with his father.

When asked why his father had not been copied in on an email relating to a major Hudson deal, Mr. Cohen said that the contents would have been something he shared with his father during one of their regular talks.

At the heart of Ms. Perelman’s case is the 2008 sale of Hudson’s media operations to the private equity firm Advent International. Mr. Cohen earned $600 million from the deal, and Ms. Perelman claims that part of that payment should have gone to her grandfather and would now go to her if the 2004 will were enforced.

Lawyers for Ms. Perelman have accused Mr. Cohen of deliberately hiding information from his father and improperly engineering a takeover of the business, claims that Mr. Cohen’s lawyers have denied.

Mr. Cohen described his father’s physical impairments toward the end of the Advent deal. To emphasize his father’s mental abilities, however, Mr. Cohen stiffened his arm and made his voice hoarse to impersonate his father saying “That’s a good price.”

Ms. Perelman’s father has for years waged war with Mr. Cohen over his father-in-law’s estate. Mr. Perelman sued in 2008, but lost.

Now Ms. Perelman is leading the charge in court, while her father is paying her legal bills.

On Monday, Ms. Perlman, a 23-year-old student at Columbia Business School, appeared in court for the first part of her uncle’s testimony, but she left early to give a class presentation.