Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Haeger

Decided April 18, 2017. Elena Kagan delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 15-1406 · 581 U.S. 101 (2017) · Cited 700 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.

• Fox v. Vice · 563 U.S. 826 (2011)
• International Union, United Mine Workers v. Bagwell · 512 U.S. 821 (1994)
• Chambers v. Nasco, Inc. · 501 U.S. 32 (1991)
• Hensley v. Eckerhart · 461 U.S. 424 (1983)
• Link v. Wabash Railroad · 370 U.S. 626 (1962)
• United States v. United Mine Workers of America · 330 U.S. 258 (1947)
• Roadway Express, Inc. v. Piper · 447 U.S. 752 (1980)
• Cutter v. Wilkinson · 544 U.S. 709 (2005)

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Elena Kagan’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

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).