Mary Mahoney's Old French House, a fine dining restaurant in the US city of Biloxi, Mississippi, has requested that a judge dismiss a civil case related to the company's conspiracy to misbrand imported seafood as local, premium fish, reports the Sun Herald.

The restaurant and its co-owner and manager, Anthony Charles Cvitanovich, pled guilty in the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi to conspiracy to misbrand seafood and wire fraud in May 2024. Just last month the company was given five years of probation and issued a $1.5 million penalty, which includes the forfeiture of nearly $1.4m and a criminal fine of $149,000, as reported by Undercurrent News.

With the federal case out of the way, the company is now turning its attention to the class-action lawsuit filed earlier this year against the restaurant and its supplier, Quality Poultry & Seafood. Mary Mahoney's and Quality have both filed motions to dismiss the case.

The civil complaint was filed by Todd McCain, an Alabama man who reports to be representing all customers deceived by Mary Mahoney's. McCain, who allegedly ate at the restaurant three times -- once each in 2013, 2016 and 2018 -- wants to be compensated for overpaying for frozen imported seafood that was supposed to be fresh from the Gulf of Mexico.

Quality has responded that McCain's "potential injury to his wallet" is only speculative.

Mary Mahoney's countered in its motion that, "of course, should this litigation proceed, plaintiff (McCain) would bear the burden to prove that he in fact consumed 'foreign fish' -- a nearly insurmountable hurdle absent the ability to forensically test the fish he alleges having consumed almost a decade ago."