Big Yank Corporation v. Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• concluding that the district court abused its discretion in imposing sanctions because the only support for its conclusion that the claim was litigated in bad faith was that counsel “churned a worthless claim to the detriment of their client”
• explaining that the district court has “inherent authority to award fees when a party litigates ‘in bad faith, vexatiously, wantonly, or for oppressive reasons’” (quoting Alyeska Pipeline Serv. Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U.S. 240, 247 (1975)
• reviewing use of the court’s inherent authority to award attorney fees, in contrast, for abuse of discretion
• reversing award of attorney fees granted pursuant to court’s inherent power to sanction
• applying Kentucky law, holding: “An action for bad faith requires something more than mere negligence. The term itself implies some intentional wrongful conduct. Mere errors in judgment should not be sufficient to establish bad faith.”
• “a party’s acting according to the express terms of a contract cannot be considered a breach of the duties of good faith and fair dealing”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).