Scott Colton (aka Colt Cabana) is suing C.M. Punk over unpaid legal fees the two shared as a result of a defamation lawsuit brought by a WWE physician. Cabana and Punk prevailed in the lawsuit although the issue of the bill is in dispute.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, August 7th in the Circuit Court of Cook County Illinois. According to the lawsuit, CM Punk assured Cabana that he was “100% covered” in relation to a demand letter he received regarding the infamous podcast in which Punk and Cabana spoke about the latter’s time in WWE including the physician’s lack of care for Punk. Punk and Cabana were sued on February 19, 2015.
A retention agreement by Punk and Cabana’s defense law firm during for the trial indicated that Punk would be responsible for paying the legal invoices. But, Cabana claims that in April 2016, Punk emailed him stating he would no longer pay the legal bills stating that Cabana would be responsible for half. But, in June 2016, an agreement was brokered between the law firm, Punk and Cabana through trial.
In March 2017, Punk allegedly requested that the law firm representing them withdraw from the case as to representing Cabana. As a result, Cabana had to retain separate counsel.
In June 2018, a jury returned a verdict in favor of Punk and Cabana. After the trial, Cabana’s lawyers demanded $200,000 in legal fees and net costs incurred by Cabana. But, Punk refused to pay.
Cabana has brought a civil lawsuit for breach of contract and fraud.
Payout Perspective:
It looks like the former friends are friends no more considering this lawsuit. There were potential conflicts between Cabana and Punk from the outset and to have both represented by the same counsel seemed dubious. Based on Cabana’s side of the story, it appears that he took no action to remove the podcast when the initial demand letter was sent by the WWE doctor because he believed that Punk would “cover” him. In this case, withdrawing as counsel two years into the lawsuit is more damaging than letting him find his own counsel from the beginning because it would seem that the new counsel would cost more considering it would have to get up to speed with the lawsuit and duplicate efforts. One would think that a settlement would have happened instead of this lawsuit but it may be a case of bad blood between the two.
Leave a Reply