Fishy Pricing

In McCain v. Mary Mahoney’s, a diner paid premium prices for what the menu described as local Gulf snapper, but was then allegedly served cheap imported frozen fish.

The Fifth Circuit held that the aggrieved diner had suffered an Article III injury in fact.
The Court placed the case within its earlier opinions on a “fraudulent-inducement” theory of economic injury.

Rivera v. Wyeth-Ayerst Labs and Earl v. Boeing Co rejected that theory where drug buyers and airline passengers never suffered the physical harm the product supposedly risked and otherwise got what they paid for. In Wilson v. Centene Management Co., by contrast, the Fifth Circuit accepted such a theory for health-plan buyers who received inaccurate provider directories, despite the insurer’s contractual promise that they would be accurate.

Unlike Rivera and Earl, which involved an “unmaterialized risk of physical harm,” this diner’s claim – like the claim in Wilson – involved “a product devoid of an important characteristic that the seller explicitly promised.” No. 25-60663 (Oct. 16, 2026).