Questionable Flood Decision
 

Recently while playing holdem in a casino a problem arose at my table. A player called a pre-flop bet and the dealer mucked his cards after two players acted behind him. The floor person was called and initially said that the hand was dead and the money must remain in the pot, then asked the player if he remembered his hole cards. The player loudly whispered his cards to the dealer and the floor person searched the muck and retrieved the cards. Most of the players heard the exact cards, personally I only heard the suits. Regardless of the results of the hand, is this "fair"?