Coventry Health Care of Missouri v. Nevils

Decided April 18, 2017. Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 16-149 · 581 U.S. 87 (2017) · Cited 1 times

Holding

When a federal court exercises its inherent authority to sanction bad-faith conduct by ordering a litigant to pay the other side's legal fees, the award is limited to the fees the innocent party incurred solely because of the misconduct—or put another way, to the fees that party would not have incurred but for the bad faith.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Empire Healthchoice Assurance, Inc. v. McVeigh · 547 U.S. 677 (2006)
• Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc. · 504 U.S. 374 (1992)
• Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · 467 U.S. 837 (1984)
• Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc. · 505 U.S. 504 (1992)
• Whitman v. American Trucking Assns., Inc. · 531 U.S. 457 (2001)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• Marmet Health Care Center, Inc. v. Brown · 565 U.S. 530 (2012)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2017). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).