John C. Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc.

Decided March 1, 1994. William Hubbs Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 92-1750 · 510 U.S. 517 (1994) · Cited 1,767 times

Holding

Prevailing plaintiffs and prevailing defendants must be treated alike under § 505; attorney’s fees are to be awarded to prevailing parties only as a matter of the court’s discretion.

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 9–0.

“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.

• Christiansburg Garment Co. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · 434 U.S. 412 (1978)
• Lorillard v. Pons · 434 U.S. 575 (1978)
• Independent Federation of Flight Attendants v. Zipes · 491 U.S. 754 (1989)
• Hensley v. Eckerhart · 461 U.S. 424 (1983)
• Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc. · 390 U.S. 400 (1968)
• Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society · 421 U.S. 240 (1975)
• Helling v. McKinney · 509 U.S. 25 (1993)
• Doggett v. United States · 505 U.S. 647 (1992)
• Connecticut National Bank v. Germain · 503 U.S. 249 (1992)
• Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. · 499 U.S. 340 (1991)
• Patterson v. McLean Credit Union · 491 U.S. 164 (1989)
• City of Burlington v. Dague · 505 U.S. 557 (1992)
• Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. · 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
• Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air · 483 U.S. 711 (1987)
• Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club · 463 U.S. 680 (1983)
• Pavelic & LeFlore v. Marvel Entertainment Group, Div. of Cadence Industries Corp. · 493 U.S. 120 (1989)
• Northcross v. Memphis Board of Education · 412 U.S. 427 (1973)
• Isbrandtsen Co. v. Johnson · 343 U.S. 779 (1952)
• TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSIC CORP. Et Al. v. AIKEN · 422 U.S. 151 (1975)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. · 579 U.S. 197 (2016)
• Martin v. Franklin Capital Corp. · 546 U.S. 132 (2005)
• Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. · 579 U.S. 93 (2016)
• CRST Van Expedited, Inc. v. Equal Emp't Opportunity Comm'n · 578 U.S. 419 (2016)
• Smith v. City of Jackson · 544 U.S. 228 (2005)
• Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. · 572 U.S. 663 (2014)
• Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory · 554 U.S. 84 (2008)
• Opati v. Republic of Sudan · 590 U.S. 418 (2020)
• Central Bank of Denver, N. A. v. First Interstate Bank of Denver, N. A. · 511 U.S. 164 (1994)
• United States v. Wells · 519 U.S. 482 (1997)
• Holder v. Hall · 512 U.S. 874 (1994)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1994). 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).