Cole and Marmalade partners are fighting each other like wildcats

The three men who own the company, Digital Pet Media, which manages the Cole and Marmalade website and associated social media sites are fighting like wildcats. Sadly they have got themselves into a massive dispute which has resulted in the Cole and Marmalade social media sites – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – being temporarily closed down although the website is still running at the date of this post.

The report on Tampa Bay Times goes into detail about the dispute. Essentially it’s about money and isn’t that always the case? Chris Poole is the defendant in the case and the other two partners are Edward Holden and Stephen Watters. They are suing Poole for breach of contract under the terms of the business agreement and Poole is countersuing. Each of the three own a third of the company through shareholdings, as I understand it.

I won’t go into a lot of detail about the dispute because it’s rather boring to be honest. But apparently Poole was acting erratically and it is alleged that he locked his business partners out of the social media accounts. Poole says that his fellow partners are in breach of contract. In his counterclaim he claims that Watters was secretly paying himself a management fee out of Digital Pet Media earnings. He also claims that his partners were creating other businesses with the same name in various states in covering up “shady business practices”. He claims that this caused losses to him.

As I said it’s about money. Poole is a genuine cat advocate and is also known as Cat Man Chris. He said that his mission in life is to rescue and foster feral cats. His wife, Jessica Josephs left her corporate job to work on the Cole and Marmalade online presence full-time.

Poole has a Go Fund Me campaign to raise funds to run his litigation. We are told that he has been passionately supported by his followers to the tune of $142,000 and the campaign has been shared more than 40,000 times. The target was $100k so it’s been a great success. He has fans probably because he is a genuine cat lover. However, the fund raising has caused more problems. Holden and Watters claim that Poole has made false statements on the Go Fund Me webpage and is in contempt of court. More litigation has followed as they have filed a motion believed to ask the court for confirmation that Poole is in contempt. It is a cat fight.

We await the outcome with interest. Cole and Marmalade is a competitor to my website. Although they sell products. It’s a business. My website is more about providing information and is not designed to be run as a businesss.

P.S. Sorry if this is a bit skimpy. But I don’t think it is because litigation – the hard legal stuff – does not go down that well with cat lovers. My cat is chasing and killing a mouse around my bed where I am working and I can’t concentrate. Update: I saved the mouse.