A. E. Nettleton Co. v. Story

121 Misc. 258
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 121 Misc. 258 (A. E. Nettleton Co. v. Story) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A. E. Nettleton Co. v. Story, 121 Misc. 258 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1923).

Opinion

Cheney, J.

Defendant makes this motion to review a retaxation of costs made by the taxing officer. Defendant appeared on the retaxation and filed written objections to certain items of the bill of costs. Some of the objections were allowed by the taxing officer and some were disallowed. No claim is made for a review of the objections which were allowed and they will not be considered here.

The first objection urged is to the allowance of the item attending and taking deposition, $185.30.” It appears from the proof that this item includes the expense of the plaintiff’s and defendant’s attorneys in going to and from .Cleveland, O., where depositions were taken, and while staying in that city. The amount of the expense of defendant’s attorneys, $65, included therein was paid [259]*259by plaintiff pursuant to the terms of the order providing for the issuance of the commission. Plaintiff, desiring to take the testimony of these witnesses by oral examination, moved in the first instance for an order instead of proceeding by notice (Civ. Prac. Act, § 292), and the court in granting the order, as provided by section 294 of the Civil Practice Act, imposed this condition: that the plaintiff shall pay to one of defendant’s counsel the necessary traveling and hotel expenses incurred by reason of his attending the taking of said depositions at the City of Cleveland, Ohio.” This order followed the former practice under the Code of Civil Procedure (Gowans v. Jobbins, 91 N. Y. Supp. 842), and as the court undoubtedly had the power to require the examination to be made upon written interrogatories (Civ. Prac. Act, § 302), it probably had power to require the payment of these expenses as a condition of the order granting the open commission. But that question is not here. The plaintiff did not appeal from the order, but accepted it subject to the condition, and cannot now tax as a disbursement in the action the amount paid by it to obtain the favor.

In regard to the balance of the item, the railroad fare and hotel bills of plaintiff’s attorney in attending the taking of this deposition, a different question arises. There is no question but that the recovery of costs and disbursements is entirely regulated by statute, and unless there is a statute authorizing the particular item, it cannot be taxed. E. L. A. Society v. Hughes, 125 N. Y. 106. It cannot be taxed as costs, as that is provided by section 1504 of the Civil Practice Act: “ h. For taking the deposition in a court of record of a witness, * * * ten dollars,” and that sum is already included in the bill of costs, as retaxed. If considered as a disbursement it must be authorized by section 1518 of the Civil Practice Act, where the allowable disbursements are scheduled. The only direct reference to expenses of commissions to take testimony (subd. 2) does not apply. It might well be said that the application of the maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius would require the holding that the inclusion in the schedule of allowable disbursements of the compensation of commissioners would preclude the allowing of any further disbursements in the same manner by reason of the general clause, but it is not necessary to put the decision upon that ground. If allowed at all it must be included in subdivision 10: “ Such other reasonable and necessary expenses as are taxable according to the course and practice of the court or by express provision of law.” There is no express provision of law which is applicable and recourse must be had to the course and practice of the court. That is to be determined by the knowledge of the court of its own practice, as illumined by adjudicated cases. As stated [260]*260by the court in E.L. A. Society v. Hughes, supra, at page 109: “ The sums disbursed by solicitors and attorneys for stationery, blanks, for traveling and tavern expenses, and for many other purposes, are necessary, and yet it has never been supposed that under the general language above quoted [actual disbursements of a solicitor or attorney in cases not therein specified] such items were taxable as disbursements.” If the traveling expenses of an attorney in attending a trial within the state are not taxable, and I know of no case where that was claimed, what reason can be given for allowing those expenses when the travel extends out of the state to obtain testimony for use at the trial?

The course and practice of the court has always been to require a distinct statutory authority for a taxable disbursement. Under the law as it existed prior to the Code of Procedure it was held that the expenses of executing a commission to examine witnesses was not an allowable disbursement. Kenney v. Vanhorne, 2 Johns. 107. The Code of Procedure repealed all laws establishing or regulating costs or fees of attorneys, but provided for the allowance of certain sums as costs by way of indemnity to the prevailing party for his expenses in the action, and also the necessary disbursements and fees of officers allowed by law,” including the compensation of referees and the expense of printing the papers upon an appeal. Code of Procedure, §§ 303, 311. Under this statute it was held that the money paid to a commissioner to take testimony in another state could not be allowed. Perry v. Griffin, 7 How. Pr. 263. A contrary result was reached in Finch v. Calvert, 13 How. Pr. 13, where those sections of the Code were construed to allow all actual necessary disbursements, including in that case the necessary expenses of éxecuting a commission in a foreign state. That decision was made in 1856, and at the very next session of the legislature section 311 was amended so as to read: the necessary disbursements, including the fee of officers allowed by law, the fees of witnesses, the reasonable compensation of commissioners in taking depositions, the fees of referees and the expenses' of printing the papers for any hearing when required by a rule of the court.” This very much weakened the authority of Finch v. Calvert, supra, in determining the legislative intent to be to indemnify the successful party for all necessary disbursements in the action, by expressly enumerating what disbursements could be allowed, and in the case of commissions to take testimony limiting the taxable disbursements to reasonable compensation of commissioners.”

This view of the effect of the amendment was reflected in the subsequent case of Dunham v. Sherman, 19 How. Pr. 572, where the compensation of the commissioner was allowed, but the charges [261]*261paid to a solicitor in the foreign state for attending the execution of the commission were disallowed.

There is nothing in the case of Simpson v. Rowan, 13 Civ. Pro. Rep. 206, by which it can be determined whether anything further was allowed than the actual compensation of the commissioner. In Reichel v. N. Y. C. R. R. Co., 18 Civ. Pro. Rep. 248, the effort was made to limit the compensation of the commissioner, who under the law under which the testimony was taken, as it then existed was termed a referee,” to the fees allowed by another section of the Code to referees; but the court held that he was in effect a commissioner to take testimony, and that the prevailing party was entitled to tax his reasonable compensation, which included his expenses in traveling to the place where the testimony was taken. The only other case which I have been able to discover is Pyne v. National S. S. Co., Ltd., 18 N. Y. Supp. 166.

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Bluebook (online)
121 Misc. 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-e-nettleton-co-v-story-nysupct-1923.