Mahoney’s, Quality Seafood win lawsuit filed by diner. What the judge found
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal judge dismissed lawsuit against Mahoney’s and Quality Seafood & Poultry.
- Judge found no concrete injury to diner Todd McCain after three paid visits.
- Lawsuit failed to prove foreign fish was served during McCain’s dining dates.
A federal judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit that a diner at Mary Mahoney’s Old French House filed against the restaurant and Quality Seafood & Poultry over imported seafood.
The two Biloxi businesses pleaded guilty through representatives to conspiring to mislabel cheaper foreign fish as Gulf fresh. Mahoney’s forfeited $1.35 million in the criminal case, while Quality forfeited $1 million.
Mahoney’s co-owner Bobby Mahoney, who was not named in the criminal case, told the Sun Herald after hearing that McCain’s lawsuit had been dismissed Tuesday: “I’m glad it’s over. It takes a big burden off of us. We paid pretty good already. Just glad it’s over.”
Diner Todd McCain had hoped Judge Louis Guirola Jr. would grant class-action status to McCain’s lawsuit. He contended that hundreds of diners at nationally lauded Mahoney’s should be compensated for being served frozen fish from a foreign country instead of the fresh Gulf snapper advertised on menus.
Judge finds no injury
But Guirola noted that McCain, who lives in Alabama, ate three fish dinners without complaint at Mahoney’s. The judge said he could find no “concrete injury” to McCain. McCain filed his lawsuit after the explosive criminal case made headlines in May 2024.
McCain ate at Mahoney’s in 2013, 2016 and 2018, according to the case file.
“It was not until some years later that he suspected that he may have been served and eaten something other than local snapper or red snapper,” Guirola said in his opinion. “Notably, McCain returned on two separate occasions to again eat at Mary Mahoney’s restaurant. As before, he consumed and paid for the fish dinner without protestation.
“Thus, on three separate occasions McCain ordered, ate and paid for three, apparently satisfactory, fish dinners.”
McCain also claimed that he suffered financially because he overpaid for his meals. But Guirola said it was impossible to know whether McCain had been served foreign or fresh fish. The criminal investigation, which lasted for years, noted time frames that Mahoney’s bought foreign fish from Quality, but not when that foreign fish was served.
McCain was essentially saying, the judge noted, that it was possible he was served foreign fish.
“These purchase dates may show when foreign fish was purchased, but not when foreign fish was substituted for red snapper, and not if any was sold to McCain on any occasion he dined at Mary Mahoney’s restaurant,” Guirola concluded.
This story was originally published June 10, 2025 at 4:50 PM.
