Count Dismissed in Colt Cabana’s Lawsuit Against CM Punk, Punk Responds to Claims

CM Punk has one less claim to deal with in the lawsuit filed against him by Colt Cabana over unpaid legal fees and breach of contract. PWInsider reports that the judge in the case dismissed Cabana’s allegations of fraud by Punk have been dismissed as of March 15th, as Cabana failed to allege a successful fraud claim when he said Punk knew or should have known that he had no intent to cover Cabana’s legal fees in relation to Chris Amann’s defamation lawsuit against them over Punk’s infamous appearance on Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast.

However, Cabana also received a bit of a victory in the suit on the 15th. In the same ruling, the judge deemed that while Punk’s text that Cabana would be “100% covered” wasn’t enough to consistute an enforceable contract, the email from Punk’s attorney offering to continue to represent Cabana on Punk’s dime was sufficient enough to establish a potentially-enforceable contract.

That email read, “Despite your unwillingness to contribute to your legal fees, I am still prepared to represent you, and Phil is prepared to have me represent you and cover your legal fees going forward, as long as there is no conflict between you and Phil that prevents me from fairly and ethically representing you. At this time, I don’t believe that any such conflict exists…”

That means that the count of breach of contract is moving forward, with the case resting on whether that email is in fact enforceable.

Punk then filed his first official response to the lawsuit on April 8th. In it, he says that he says Cabana wanted Punk on his podcast to his own financial benefit and that Punk wasn’t compensated, and denied that he believed a demand letter from Amann that the podcast be removed would likely lead to WWE suing Punk. He also says that any claims he would 100% cover Cabana over his legal costs are “are entirely unfounded, are totally false, and are insulting.”

Punk said in regard to an email he wrote in April of 2016 where he demanded Cabana pay half of their legal fees, he “admits that he gave up long ago on hoping Colton would do what is right. [Punk] further admits that, at the time of the quoted message, he felt that given a lack of reciprocation in their friendship, that he wanted Colton to finally pay toward his own legal defense expenses, which to that point Colton had contributed absolutely nothing.”

He also addresses his lawyer’s email in question, saying that he “admits only that Colton has accurately quoted some, but not all, of the words in the email” and “denies any remaining allegations.”

Discovery on the case is continuing through May 7th, and then there will be a conference on May 21st to handle the case.