Lew Hastings, Executive Director of the Boca Grande Chamber of Commerce (left), and Capt. Tom McLaughlin, Chairman of Save the Tarpon (right) at the 2013 Save the Tarpon Shindig on March 3. It is this photo which led the PTTS to name Lew Hastings personally in the suit against Save the Tarpon.
This article was originally published in the Boca Beacon on January 29, 2014.
The owners of the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series and their Tampa attorney will be paying the legal bills of three Save The Tarpon Inc. directors after a Charlotte County Circuit Court judge slapped them with sanctions on Tuesday, Jan. 28 under a rarely-invoked state statute aimed at curbing so-called frivolous litigation.
Judge Joseph G. Foster ruled that Silver King Entertainment Inc., which owns and operates the PTTS, and their lawyer Dennis A. Creed of the Tampa firm Feldman Morgado must pay legal fees incurred by Save The Tarpon directors Chris Frohlich, Lew Hastings and Tommy Locke III.
The three were initially named in a lawsuit filed against the Boca Grande-based conservation group last year in which the tournament claimed Save the Tarpon had cost the PTTS more than $500,000 in sponsorship and other revenues. Frohlich, Hastings and Locke were subsequently dropped from the suit.
