Restaurant franchise bankruptcies have continued to reshape parts of the quick-service business as operators contend with debt, weaker traffic, and higher operating costs. In Florida, that pressure is now playing out in court after Miami-based Popeyes franchisee Sailormen sued over a failed sale involving 23 Orlando-area restaurants. The lawsuit centers on whether the bankrupt operator can keep $2.5 million that had been placed in escrow for the transaction.
Sailormen asks the court to let it keep a $2.5 million escrow payment
Sailormen Inc. filed the lawsuit on September 16, 2026, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, according to Nation’s Restaurant News and Bloomberg Law. The company said RFI Ventures improperly backed out of an agreement to buy 23 Orlando-area Popeyes restaurants and argued the $2.5 million in escrow should be forfeited as liquidated damages.
The dispute follows Sailormen’s January 15, 2026 Chapter 11 filing. Court records tracked by Stretto show the company entered bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Florida, and reporting on the case said Sailormen was working to sell restaurants to multiple buyers as part of the restructuring process.
At the center of the case is a package of 23 stores that had originally been part of a larger June sale process. Nation’s Restaurant News reported that 97 of Sailormen’s locations were sold through that broader effort, with the Orlando group assigned to RFI Ventures for about $2.5 million before the deal fell apart.
Sailormen told the court that RFI later tried to justify its nonperformance on what the company described in filings as unsupported grounds for termination. Bloomberg Law reported that Sailormen is seeking permission to retain the escrowed funds now held in dispute, making the case one of the latest courtroom fights tied to the chain’s bankruptcy sales.
The dispute is centered on Orlando-area restaurants, but the full local list is not public
The restaurants at issue are in the Orlando area, but a comprehensive public list of the 23 affected addresses was not included in the source material reviewed for this article. What is confirmed is the scale of the package and the geography: these were Orlando-area Popeyes units that Sailormen had planned to transfer to RFI Ventures before finding another buyer.
For Central Florida customers, that means the ownership path for those restaurants changed during the bankruptcy process, but not all site-level outcomes have been detailed publicly. Nation’s Restaurant News reported that after RFI withdrew, Sailormen sought court approval to keep operating the restaurants while it looked for another buyer.
A replacement deal was reached in July, when SBH Foods PLK agreed to acquire the same 23 Orlando-area locations for $2.7 million, or roughly $200,000 more than the original offer, according to court documents cited by Nation’s Restaurant News. That agreement allowed the sale process for those stores to move forward.
Elsewhere in the bankruptcy, other Florida and Georgia markets were also affected. Prior reporting said Popeyes corporate was set to buy 16 Miami-area locations, 61 Biscuits LLC agreed to buy three West Palm Beach-area stores, and SBH Foods had separately agreed to buy five Savannah, Georgia, locations.
The lawsuit grows out of a broader bankruptcy driven by debt and operating pressure
Sailormen’s legal fight is part of a larger restructuring tied to heavy debt and weaker restaurant economics. Nation’s Restaurant News reported that the company estimated about $130 million in debt in its Chapter 11 filing and said it had faced significant challenges over the prior year, including rising operational costs and consumer behavior changes that reduced traffic.
Additional reporting on the bankruptcy said Sailormen had operated more than 136 Popeyes locations across Florida and Georgia before the filing. Earlier in the case, 20 restaurants in Florida and Georgia closed in March, including three units where leases were rejected, showing that some store-level fallout had already begun before this latest lawsuit.
The court fight also highlights how bankruptcy sales can continue even after an approved buyer steps away. A legal analysis published after a recent court order noted that the judge directed the escrow dispute into an adversary proceeding rather than resolving it immediately through a motion in the main bankruptcy case, meaning the question of who ultimately gets the money is now being litigated separately.
For customers, the practical takeaway is narrower than the lawsuit itself. The Orlando-area restaurants have a replacement buyer, but the company has not released a full public list of the affected locations in the materials reviewed here, and the escrow dispute is still pending in bankruptcy court as Sailormen continues unwinding its Florida and Georgia portfolio.