Ohio Supreme Court, 1997

Pegan v. Crawmer

Ohio Supreme Court · Decided June 25, 1997 · Cook, Douglas, Moyer, Only, Pfeifer, Resnick, Stratton, Sweeney

79 Ohio St. 3d 155; 679 N.E.2d 1129

Cases that cite this one

37 later published cases cite this decision. The 25 that cite it most often are listed here.

Rayco Mfg., Inc. v. Murphy, Rogers, Sloss & Gambel (Ohio Ct. App. 2019)
Fox v. City of Pataskala (Ohio Ct. App. 2018)
MRI Software, L.L.C. v. W. Oaks Mall FL, L.L.C. (Ohio Ct. App. 2018)
Becker v. Direct Energy, LP (Ohio Ct. App. 2018)
Fultz v. Fultz (Ohio Ct. App. 2014)
Moxley v. PFUNDSTEIN (District Court, N.D. Ohio 2011)
Wilborn v. Bank One Corp. (Ohio 2009)
Stonehenge Land Co. v. Beazer Homes Investments, L.L.C. (Ohio Ct. App. 2008)
State ex rel. Citizen Action for a Livable Montgomery v. Hamilton County Board of Elections (Ohio 2007)
Rosepark Properties, Ltd. v. Buess (Ohio Ct. App. 2006)
Reed v. Smith, Unpublished Decision (3-14-2001) (Ohio Ct. App. 2001)
WMA Securities, Inc. v. Wynn (District Court, S.D. Ohio 2000)
Capretta v. Goodson, Unpublished Decision (12-18-2000) (Ohio Ct. App. 2000)
McConnell v. Hunt Sports Enterprises (Ohio Ct. App. 1999)
First Bank of Marietta v. L. C. Limited, Unpublished Decision (12-28-1999) (Ohio Ct. App. 1999)
Stapleton v. Powers (Ohio Ct. App. 2026)
Buckner v. Hasan (Ohio Ct. App. 2026)
Todd v. Epling (Ohio Ct. App. 2025)
Universal Steel Bldgs. Corp. v. Dues (Ohio Ct. App. 2024)
State ex rel. Internatl. Assn. of Fire Fighters v. Barbish (Ohio Ct. App. 2024)
Assured Admin., L.L.C. v. Young (Ohio Ct. App. 2021)
United Gulf Marine, L.L.C. v. Continental Refining Co., L.L.C. (Ohio Ct. App. 2019)
Fidelity Tax, L.L.C. v. Hall (Ohio Ct. App. 2017)
Forrester v. Mercker (Ohio Ct. App. 2016)
Trogdon v. Beltran (Ohio Ct. App. 2016)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam.

Pegan asserts in her sole proposition of law that attorney fees are not available as costs absent statutory authority or frivolous conduct on the part of the nonprevailing party. For the reasons that follow, we sustain Pegan’s proposition and reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.

First, in the absence of statutory authorization or a finding of conduct that amounts to bad faith, a prevailing party may not recover attorney fees. State ex rel. Pennington v. Gundler (1996), 75 Ohio St.3d 171, 173, 661 N.E.2d 1049, 1051; Vance v. Roedersheimer (1992), 64 Ohio St.3d 552, 556, 597 N.E.2d 153, 156. No statute authorizes attorney fees here, and neither this court nor the court of appeals determined that Pegan had acted in bad faith in instituting the habeas corpus action or her appeals.

Second, the reference to costs in our previous judgment entry referred only to the docket fee, not attorney fees. State ex rel. Plain Dealer Publishing Co. v. Cleveland (1996), 76 Ohio St.3d 1218, 667 N.E.2d 1232; S.Ct.Prac.R. XV(1); see, also, Muze v. Mayfield (1991), 61 Ohio St.3d 173, 174-175, 573 N.E.2d 1078, 1079 (Unless specified by statute, “costs” do not include attorney fees.).

Based on the foregoing, the judgment of the court of appeals is reversed.

Judgment reversed.

Moyer, C.J., Resnick, F.E. Sweeney, Pfeifer, Cook and Lundberg Stratton, JJ., concur. Douglas, J., concurs in judgment only.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.