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The Ship’s Log · 1972 → 2026Timeline: The Company, the Case, and the Reckoning
One chart, four channels. Brass marks company history, maroon marks regulators, red marks the federal case, periwinkle marks the state front. Lay the entries in order and the narrative writes itself.
- Sept. 18, 1972Company
A ghost ship named SEA TOW, INC.
A Florida corporation named SEA TOW, INC. Doc. 408894 is filed in Rockledge, FL by Billy R. Todd, Autry Todd, and Jere E. Lober — dissolved October 1974, nine years before the official founding story begins. Filed under BIG QUESTIONS.
- 1983Company
The founding
Capt. Joseph J. Frohnhoefer Jr. founds Sea Tow Services International in Southold, NY.
- 1984–1988Regulatory
Franchises sold, none registered
Per the AG’s later findings, Sea Tow offers and sells franchises from New York for $2,500 initial fees. No prospectus is registered.
- Apr. 18, 1988Regulatory
The Attorney General comes calling
The Investor Protection Bureau writes to founder Frohnhoefer: “Our records show no registration of a Sea Tow prospectus,” and orders him to appear at 120 Broadway Doc. 192-2.
- Sept. 7, 1989Regulatory
Stein engineers the escape route
Attorney Mitchell A. Stein — in the matter captioned People v. Sea Tow International — submits a restructured license swapping the $2,500 franchise fee for a $500 “sales materials” payment, requesting an informal opinion and confidentiality Doc. 192-4.
- Dec. 1989Regulatory
The Assurance of Discontinuance
Sea Tow signs; the founder signs personally, under oath. The AG’s allegations: Sea Tow “is a franchisor,” selling unregistered. Company and founder agree not to violate the franchise law “from now until the end of time,” with a permanent injunction available on ten days’ notice Docs. 192-3, 192-4. On Dec. 13, staff attorney Horowitz issues a heavily disclaimed, informal, non-opinion on the restructured agreement Doc. 192-5.
- 1999–2017Company
The yellow-hull trademark saga
Registration 3678375 (the color yellow on towing vessels) is maintained, litigated — and in 2017 cancelled by the TTAB as a discovery sanction Cancellation No. 92059856, the Board concluding “any sanction short of judgment would be futile.” As far as the record shows, franchisees paying for the yellow were never told.
- 2019Company
Tampa Bay taken back
Sea Tow takes the Tampa Bay territory from Erich and Abigail Jaeger — the family once announced as “the new owners of Tampa Bay.”
- June 29, 2020Federal
The $1.5 million lawsuit
Sea Tow sues the Jaegers and their companies in the E.D.N.Y. — 1,100 miles from Tampa — for breach of a management agreement and trademark infringement. The Jaegers counterclaim under the NYFSA and name Stein and Frohnhoefer III personally.
- Sept. 13, 2021Federal
Akerman LLP withdraws
Sea Tow’s national co-counsel exits the case.
- Jan. 28, 2022Federal
The 1988 file surfaces
The AG letter, Assurance, Stein restructuring letter, and Horowitz analysis are filed as public exhibits Docket Entry 192 — by Sea Tow’s own side.
- Sept. 30, 2022Federal
“Fits comfortably within”
Judge Joanna Seybert rules the fee structure alleged by the Jaegers fits comfortably within the statutory definition of a franchise fee ECF No. 216. The case’s center of gravity shifts permanently.
- Mar. 2023Federal
“Drain the Jaeger Defendants”
Judge Nina Morrison denies Sea Tow leave to file a Third Amended Complaint, finding it appeared to seek amendment “simply to slow down the litigation and drain the Jaeger Defendants of their comparatively limited resources” DE 238 at 7–8.
- Aug.–Oct. 2023Federal
Altman abandons ship
Co-counsel Steven Altman moves to withdraw, stating STSI “insisted on legal strategies that I believe are contrary to the law and my ethical obligations” Doc. 241. Withdrawal effective Oct. 16, 2023.
- Mar. 19, 2024Federal
The 15% on the record
Magistrate Judge Locke’s ruling memorializes the 15%-of-gross-revenue figure Doc. 262 — a long voyage from $500 for “sales materials.”
- 2025State
The second front
Sea Tow, family entity H2FRO, Inc., and two franchisees sue in Suffolk County Supreme Court Index No. 606928/2025, asserting claims strikingly similar to ones dismissed federally.
- Dec. 29, 2025Federal
“This is untrue”
Magistrate Judge Locke denies Sea Tow’s third motion to compel DE 301, finds its requests “overbroad, unduly burdensome and wholly disproportionate,” finds one of its representations “untrue,” and closes document discovery.
- Jan. 12, 2026State
Justice Andrews stays the state case
Short Form Order NYSCEF Doc. 55: Sea Tow appears “to be attempting to use this action to obtain further discovery to be used in the federal action.” The order also finds a “plausible” franchise relationship, with rescission and GBL damages in play. Sea Tow appeals.
- Feb. 2, 2026Federal
Ten depositions, says the court
After receiving “two letters, one from each side griping about the other,” Judge Locke sets a schedule: ten depositions per side, seven hours each, within 30 miles of each witness’s home DE 310.
- Feb. 5–10, 2026Federal
The Subpoena Armada sails
Sea Tow serves seventeen non-party subpoenas — on franchisees, bystanders, and the L’Hommedieus first — bringing its intended total to 23 witnesses against the ten-deposition order, demanding five and a half years of records for a case about sixty days of fees.
- Feb. 18, 2026Federal
The Armada is frozen — temporarily
On the Jaegers’ emergency motion Doc. 311, the court stays all seventeen non-party subpoenas.
- Feb. 25, 2026Federal
The stay dissolves
The court overrules the Jaegers’ objections: because they assert counterclaims based on harm to their business, Sea Tow may test those damages assertions. The subpoenas proceed — but only under court-imposed confidentiality, with documents served on the Jaegers in real time and used for this litigation alone; four additional non-party deponents are identified DE 314.
- Mar. 4–11, 2026Federal
Three new fronts in Florida
Sea Tow opens miscellaneous dockets in the M.D. Fla. to compel the L’Hommedieus and Ryan Hurley 8:26-mc-00008, -00009, -00010. On March 11, the L’Hommedieus move to quash, filing sworn declarations that put their whole story — the pitch, the resignation, the relocation, the collapse — on the public record.
- Apr. 23, 2026Federal
Depositions concluded
The Frohnhoefer and Stein depositions conclude by the court’s deadline. Sea Tow designates its own principals’ transcripts confidential — wholesale — a designation the Jaegers dispute.
- June 29–30, 2026Federal
An extension, and a deadline that wasn’t extended
A consent motion by Frohnhoefer III and Stein Doc. 317 moves the joint status report to July 7. The next day, the SBA Franchise Directory recertification window closes for the entire industry. (Our August review of the post-deadline Directory: Sea Tow is not listed.)
- July 7, 2026Federal
The log is closed
The joint discovery status report Doc. 318 lands: the Jaegers renew their bid for summary judgment on liability; disputes over confidentiality, errata sheets, and never-produced documents are teed up for Judge Kuntz. The recurring refrain of the season: “that’s for Judge Kuntz.”
- July 27, 2026Federal
Fact discovery closes; the file goes to Kuntz
At a 44-minute conference, Judge Locke closes fact discovery but for one carve-out — the Jaegers’ franchise-valuation document request, set for letter briefing — sets the expert calendar (Sept. 30 / Nov. 30), and routes everything dispositive to Senior Judge William F. Kuntz II DE 320. The thirty-day summary judgment clock under his published Rule III(C) is arguably running.
- Aug. 25, 2026Federal
The sealed envelope and the four-page confession
Both halves of the court-ordered exchange land the same day: the Jaegers’ Fourth Motion to Compel A-Tier valuation documents, filed under seal DE 321, and Sea Tow’s public opposition DE 322 — which, while fighting production, describes tiered franchise territories, 28 transactions over 8 years with unchanged valuation multiples, a 2022 “purchase [of] the franchise” by H2FRO (the CEO’s own company), confidentiality duties to “present and former franchisees,” and franchisees organizing outside FeNAC. The opposition also runs four pages against a three-page limit.
- NextFederal
Pending: the ruling that could end it
Judge Locke’s ruling on the Fourth Motion to Compel; whether DE 321 is ever unsealed; summary judgment on liability; the confidentiality fight; and — hovering over everything — whether any court, or the sleeping regulator holding a 1989 trigger, finally answers the forty-year question out loud.